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LOVEY MARY 



















































■9 
































LOVEY MARY 


BY 

ALICE HEGAN RICE 



NEW YORK : THE CENTURY CO. 


M CM III 




■ J 



CONGRESS, 


Two Copies Received 

OCT 1 7 1 QO? 

Capyright Entry 

Pvt /*]- /R CZ 

CLAS* Ol xXa No 

7 / 2 ST ^ 

i / COPY A. / 


Copyright, 1902, 1903, by 
The Century Co. 



The DeVinne Press 


) 




TO 

CALE YOUNG RICE 

WHO TAUGHT ME THE SECRET 
OF PLUCKING ROSES FROM 
A CABBAGE PATCH 


v 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

i A Cactus-Plant 3 

ii A Runaway Couple 22 

hi The Hazy Household .... 43 

iv An Accident and an Incident 64 

v The Dawn of a Romance . . 75 

vi The Losing of Mr. Stubbins . 95 

vii Neighborly Advice 1 13 

viii A Denominational Garden . . 123 

ix Labor Day 140 

x A Timely Visit 157 

xi The Christmas Play . . . . 1 7 1 

xii Reaction 195 

xiii An Honorable Retreat . . .211 

xiv The Cactus Blooms 221 

vii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

They met at the pump Frontispiece 

u Now the Lord meant you to be plain ” ♦ . 7 

44 What ’s the matter with your hair, Lovey 

Mary?” 13 

u Come here, Tom, and kiss your mother” . 25 

4< ’T ain’t no street . ♦ ♦ ; this here is the 

Cabbage Patch” 43 

Trying to hitch the duck to a spool-box . 53 

She puffed her hair at the top and sides . 59 

44 She took on mighty few airs fer a person in 

mournin’” 71 

She sat on the door-step, white and miser- 
able 79 

11 1 ain’t never had no thought of marryin’ ” . 87 

Mrs. Wiggs took pictures from her walls 
and chairs from her parlor to beautify the 
house of Hazy 9 7 


IX 


List of Illustrations 


PAGE 


Mr. Stubbins, sitting in Mrs. Wiggs 7 s most 
comfortable chair, with a large slice of 
pumpkin-pie in his hand 

11 Stick out yer tongue 77 

U7 T ain r t nothin 7 but a summer shower” . . 

Lovey Mary sang every funny song she knew 

Asia held out her hands, which were covered 
with warm red mitts 

Master Robert Redding was right side up 
again, sobbing himself quiet in Lovey 
Mary 7 s arms 

u Have you ever acted any ? 77 he asked . . 

There u was n 7 t no room to set down 77 ♦ . 

Europena stepped forward 

Sang in a high, sweet voice, u I Need Thee 
Every Hour 77 . . 

u Have n 7 t you got any place you could go 
to ? 77 

Susie Smithers at the keyhole 

Lovey Mary waved until she rounded a curve 

f 


101 

127 

147 

153 

159 

167 

173 

179 

185 

1 9 1 

201 

213 

233 


LOVEY MARY 














LOVEY MARY 

±* 

CHAPTER I 

A CACTUS-PLANT 


For life , with all it yields of joy and woe, 

And hope and fear, . . . 

Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love, — 

How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. 

Browning’s “ A Death in the Desert." 



Everything about Lov- 
ey Mary was a con- 
tradiction, from her 
hands and feet, which 
seemed to have been 
meant for a big girl, to 
her high ideals and aspirations, that 
ought to have belonged to an amiable 
3 


Lovey Mary 


one. The only ingredient which might 
have reconciled all the conflicting ele- 
ments in her chaotic little bosom was 
one which no one had ever taken the 
trouble to supply. 

When Miss Bell, the matron of the 
home, came to receive Lovey Mary's 
confession of repentance, she found her 
at an up-stairs window making hideous 
faces and kicking the furniture. The 
depth of her repentance could always 
be gaged by the violence of her conduct. 
Miss Bell looked at her as she would 
have looked at one of the hieroglyphs 
on the Obelisk. She had been trying 
to decipher her for thirteen years. 

Miss Bell was stout and prim, a com- 
bination which was surely never in- 
tended by nature. Her gray dress and 
4 


/ 1 Cactus-Plant 


tight linen collar and cuffs gave the un- 
comfortable impression of being sewed 
on, while her rigid black water-waves 
seemed irrevocably painted upon her 
high forehead. She was a routinist; 
she believed in system, she believed in 
order, and she believed that godliness 
was akin to cleanliness. When she 
found an exception to a rule she re- 
garded the exception in the light of an 
error. As she stood, brush in hand, 
before Lovey Mary, she thought for the 
hundredth time that the child was an 
exception. 

“ Stand up,” she said firmly but not 
unkindly. u I thought you had too 
much sense to do your hair that way. 
Come back to the bath-room, and I will 
arrange it properly.” 

5 


Lovey Mary 


Lovey Mary gave a farewell kick at 
the wall before she followed Miss Bell. 
One side of her head was covered with 
tight black ringlets, and the other 
bristled with curl-papers. 

“When I was a little girl,” said Miss 
Bell, running the wet comb ruthlessly 
through the treasured curls, “the 
smoother my hair was the better I liked 
it. I used to brush it down with soap 
and water to make it stay.” 

Lovey Mary looked at the water- 
waves and sighed. 

“ If you 're ugly you never can get 
married with anybody, can you, Miss 
Bell?” she asked in a spirit of earnest 
inquiry. 

Miss Bell's back became stiffer, if 
possible, than before. 

“Marriage is n't the only thing in 
6 










I 











y? Cactus-Plant 


the world. The homelier you are the 
better chance you have of being good. 
Now the Lord meant you to be plain " 
— assisting Providence by drawing the 
braids so tight that the girl's eyebrows 
were elevated with the strain. “ If he 
had meant you to have curls he would 
have given them to you." 

“Well, did n't he want me to have a 
mother and father?" burst forth Lovey 
Mary, indignantly, “or clothes, or 
money, or nothing? Can't I ever get 
nothing at all 'cause I was n't started 
out with nothing?" 

Miss Bell was too shocked to reply. 
She gave a final brush to the sleek, wet 
head and turned sorrowfully away. 
Lovey Mary ran after her and caught 
her hand. 

“I 'm sorry," she cried impulsively. 

9 


Lovey Mary 


11 1 want to be good. Please — 
please — ” 

Miss Bell drew her hand away coldly. 
11 You needn’t go to Sabbath-school this 
morning/’ she said in an injured tone; 
“you can stay here and think over what 
you have said. I am not angry with 
you. I never allow myself to get angry. 
I don’t understand, that ’s all. You 
are such a good girl about some things 
and so unreasonable about others. W ith 
a good home, good clothes, and kind 
treatment, what else could a girl want?” 

Receiving no answer to this inquiry, 
Miss Bell adjusted her cuffs and de- 
parted with the conviction that she had 
done all that was possible to throw 
light upon a dark subject. 

Lovey Mary, left alone, shed bitter 
10 


/? Cactus-Plant 


tears on her clean gingham dress. Thir- 
teen years ought to reconcile a person 
even to gingham dresses with white 
china buttons down the back, and round 
straw hats bought at wholesale. But 
Lovey Mary's rebellion of spirit was 
something that time only served to in- 
crease. It had started with Kate Rider, 
who used to pinch her, and laugh at 
her, and tell the other girls to “get on 
to her curves. rr Curves had signified 
something dreadful to Lovey Mary; 
she would have experienced real relief 
could she have known that she did not 
possess any. It was not Kate Rider, 
however, who was causing the present 
tears; she had left the home two years 
before, and her name was not allowed 
to be mentioned even in whispers. 

1 1 


Lovey Mary 


Neither was it rebellion against the 
work that had cast Lovey Mary into 
such depths of gloom; fourteen beds 
had been made, fourteen heads had 
been combed, and fourteen wriggling 
little bodies had been cheerfully but- 
toned into starchy blue ginghams ex- 
actly like her own. 

Something deeper and more mysteri- 
ous was fermenting in her soul — some- 
thing that made her long passionately 
for the beautiful things of life, for love 
and sympathy and happiness; some- 
thing that made her want to be good, 
yet tempted her constantly to rebel 
against her environs. It was just the 
world-old spirit that makes the veriest 
little weed struggle through a chink in 
the rock and reach upward toward the 


sun. 


12 













y? Cactus-^Plant 


“ What T s the matter with your hair, 
Lovey Mary? It looks so funny,” 
asked a small girl, coming up the steps. 

“If anybody asts you, tell ’em you 
don’t know,” snapped Lovey Mary. 

“Well, Miss Bell says for you to 
come down to the office/ 1 said the other, 
unabashed. “There ’s a lady down 
there — a lady and a baby. Me and 
Susie peeked in. Miss Bell made the 
lady cry; she made her wipe the pow- 
ders off her compleshun.” 

“ Andshe sent forme?” asked Lovey 
Mary, incredulously. Such a ripple in 
the still waters of the home was suffi- 
cient to interest the most disconsolate. 

“Yes; and me and Susie T s going to 
peek some more.” 

Lovey Mary dried her tears and hur- 

15 


Lovey Mary 


ried down to the office. As she stood 
at the door she heard a girl’s excited 
voice protesting and begging, and Miss 
Bell’s placid tones attempting to calm 
her. They paused as she entered. 

“Mary,” said Miss Bell, “you re- 
member Kate Rider. She has brought 
her child for us to take care of for a 
while. Have you room for him in your 
division?” 

As Lovey Mary looked at the gaily 
dressed girl on the sofa, her animosity 
rekindled. It was not Kate’s bold 
black eyes that stirred her wrath, nor 
the hard red lips that recalled the taunts 
of other days: it was the sight of the 
auburn curls gathered in tantalizing 
profusion under the brim of the showy 
hat. 


16 


A Cactus-Plant 


“Mary, answer my question !” said 
Miss Bell, sharply. 

With an involuntary shudder of re- 
pugnance Lovey Mary drew her gaze 
from Kate and murmured, “Yes, 'm.” 

“Then you can take the baby with 
you,” continued Miss Bell, motioning 
to the sleeping child. “ But wait a 
moment. I think I will put Jennie 
at the head of your division and let 
you have entire charge of this little 
boy. He is only a year old, Kate 
tells me, so will need constant atten- 
tion. ” 

Lovey Mary was about to protest, 
when Kate broke in: 

“ Oh, say, Miss Bell, please get some 
other girl! Tommy never would like 
Lovey. He f s just like me: if people 
17 


Lovey Mary 


ain't pretty, he don't have no use 
for 'em/' 

“ That will do, Kate," said Miss Bell, 
coldly. “ It is only pity for the child 
that makes me take him at all. You 
have forfeited all claim upon our sym- 
pathy or patience. Mary, take the baby 
up-stairs and care for him until I come." 

Lovey Mary, hot with rebellion, 
picked him up and went out of the 
room. At the door she stumbled 
against two little girls who were listen- 
ing at the keyhole. 

Up-stairs in the long dormitory it 
was very quiet. The children had been 
marched away to Sunday-school, and 
only Lovey Mary and the sleeping baby 
were on the second floor. The girl sat 
beside the little white bed and hated 
18 


A Cactus-Plant 


the world as far as she knew it: she 
hated Kate for adding this last insult 
to the old score; she hated Miss Bell 
for putting this new burden on her un- 
willing shoulders ; she hated the burden 
itself, lying there before her so serene 
and unconcerned; and most of all she 
hated herself. 

“ I wisht I was dead ! " she cried pas- 
sionately. “The harder I try to be 
good the meaner I get. Ever'body 
blames me, and ever'body makes fun 
of me. Ugly old face, and ugly old 
hands, and straight old rat-tail hair! It 
ain't no wonder that nobody loves me. 
I just wisht I was dead!" 

The sunshine came through the win- 
dow and made a big white patch on the 
bare floor, but Lovey Mary sat in the 
19 


Lovey Mary 


shadow and disturbed the Sunday quiet 
by her heavy sobbing. 

At noon, when the children returned, 
the noise of their arrival woke Tommy. 
He opened his round eyes on a strange 
world, and began to cry lustily. One 
child after another tried to pacify him, 
but each friendly advance increased his 
terror. 

“ Leave him be ! " cried Lovey Mary. 
“Them hats is enough to skeer him 
into fits." She picked him up, and with 
the knack born of experience soothed 
and comforted him. The baby hid his 
face on her shoulder and held her tight. 
She could feel the sobs that still shook 
the small body, and his tears were on 
her cheek. 

“Never mind," she said. “I ain’t 
20 


./? Cactus-tPlant 


a-going to let ’em hurt you. I y m going 
to take care of you. Don't cry any 
more. Look!” 

She stretched forth her long, un- 
shapely hand and made grotesque 
snatches at the sunshine that poured 
in through the window. Tommy hesi- 
tated and was lost; a smile struggled 
to the surface, then broke through the 
tears. 

“Look! He r s laughing!” cried 
Lovey Mary, gleefully. “ He 's laugh- 
ing 'cause I ketched a sunbeam for 
him!” 

Then she bent impulsively and kissed 
the little red lips so close to her own. 


21 


CHAPTER II 

A RUNAWAY COUPLE 

“ Courage mount eth with occasion 

DR two years Lovey 
Mary cared for 
Tommy: she bathed 
him and dressed him, 
taught him to walk, 
and kissed his bumps 
to make them well; she sewed for him 
and nursed him by day, and slept with 
him in her tired arms at night. And 
Tommy, with the inscrutable philoso- 
phy of childhood, accepted his little 
foster-mother and gave her his all. 

22 



Runaway Couple 

One bright June afternoon the two 
were romping in the home yard under 
the beech-trees* Lovey Mary lay in 
the grass, while Tommy threw hand- 
fuls of leaves in her face, laughing with 
delight at her grimaces. Presently the 
gate clicked, and some one came toward 
them. 

“ Good land ! is that my kid?” said a 
woman’s voice* u Come here, Tom, and 
kiss your mother.” 

Lovey Mary, sitting up, found Kate 
Rider, in frills and ribbons, looking 
with surprise at the sturdy child before 
her. 

Tommy objected violently to this sud- 
den overture and declined positively to 
acknowledge the relationship. In fact, 
when Kate attempted to pull him to 
23 


Lovey Mary 


her, he fled for protection to Lovey 
Mary and cast belligerent glances at 
the intruder. 

Kate laughed. 

“Oh, you need n't be so scary; you 
might as well get used to me, for I am 
going to take you home with me. I bet 
he 's a corker, ain't he, Lovey? He 
used to bawl all night. Sometimes I 'd 
have to spank him two or three times.” 

Lovey Mary clasped the child closer 
and looked up in dumb terror. Was 
T ommy to be taken from her ? T ommy 
to go away with Kate? 

“Great Scott! ” exclaimed Kate, ex- 
asperated at the girl's manner. “You 
are just as ugly and foolish as you used 
to be. I r m going in to see Miss Bell.” 

Lovey Mary waited until she was in 
24 






A Runaway Couple 

the house, then she stole noiselessly 
around to the office window. The cur- 
tain blew out across her cheek, and the 
swaying lilacs seemed to be trying to 
count the china buttons on her back; 
but she stood there with staring eyes 
and parted lips, and held her breath to 
listen. 

“Of course/ 1 Miss Bell was saying, 
measuring her words with due preci- 
sion, “ if you feel that you can now sup- 
port your child and that it is your duty 
to take him, we cannot object. There 
are many other children waiting to 
come into the home. And yet — M Miss 
Bell's voice sounded human and un- 
natural — “yet I wish he could stay. 
Have you thought, Kate, of your re- 
sponsibility toward him, of — ” 

27 


Lovey Mary 


“Oh! Ough!” shrieked Tommy 
from the playground, in tones of distress. 

Lovey Mary left her point of vantage 
and rushed to the rescue. She found 
him emitting frenzied yells, while a tiny 
stream of blood trickled down his chin. 

“It was my little duck,” he gasped 
as soon as he. was able to speak. “ I 
was tissin* him, an* he bited me.” 

At thought of the base ingratitude on 
the part of the duck, Tommy wailed 
anew. Lovey Mary led him to the 
hydrant and bathed the injured lip, 
while she soothed his feelings. Sud- 
denly a wave of tenderness swept over 
her. She held his chubby face up to 
hers and said fervently: 

“Tommy, do you love me?” 

“Yes,” said Tommy, with a re- 
28 


/ J Runaway Couple 

proachful eye on the duck. “Yes; 
I yuv to yuv. I don’t yuv to tiss, 
though !” 

u But me, T ommy r me. Do you love 
me?” 

“Yes” he answered gravely, u dollar 
an’ a half.” 

“ Whose little boy are you?” 

“Yuvey’s ’e boy.” 

Satisfied with this catechism, she 
put Tommy in care of another girl and 
went back to her post at the window. 
Miss Bell was talking again. 

“ 1 will have him ready to-morrow 
afternoon when you come. His clothes 
are all in good condition. I only hope, 
Kate, that you will care for him as ten- 
derly as Mary has. I am afraid he will 
miss her sadly.” 


29 


Lovey Mary 


“ If he 's like me t he '11 forget about 
her in two or three days/ 7 answered the 
other voice. “It always was 'out of 
sight, out of mind* with me,” 

Miss Bell's answer was indistinct, 
and in a few minutes Lovey Mary heard 
the hall door close behind them. She 
shook her fists until the lilacs trembled. 
"She sha'n'thavehim! " she whispered 
fiercely. " She sha'n't let him grow up 
wicked like she is. I won't let him go. 
I 'll hide him, I 'll — " 

Suddenly she grew very still, and for 
a long time crouched motionless behind 
the bushes. The problem that faced 
her had but one solution, and Lovey 
Mary had found it. 

The next morning when the sun 
climbed over the tree-tops and peered 
30 


/I Runaway Couple 

into the dormitory windows he found 
that somebody else had made an early 
rise. Lovey Mary was sitting by a 
wardrobe making her last will and tes- 
tament. From the neatly folded pile of 
linen she selected a few garments and 
tied them into a bundle. Then she 
took out a cigar-box and gravely con- 
templated the contents. There were 
two narrow hair-ribbons which had evi- 
dently been one wide ribbon, a bit of 
rock-crystal, four paper dolls, a soiled 
picture-book with some other little 
girFs name scratched out on the cover, 
and two shining silver dollars. These 
composed Lovey Mary’s worldly pos- 
sessions. She tied the money in her 
handkerchief and put it in her pocket, 
then got up softly and slipped about 
31 


Lovey Mary 


among the little white beds, distributing 
her treasures. 

U I ’m mad at Susie,” she whispered, 
pausing before a tousled head; u I hate 
to give her the nicest thing I r ve got. 
But she ’s just crazy ’bout picture- 
books.” 

The curious sun climbed yet a little 
higher and saw Lovey Mary go back to 
her own bed, and, rolling Tommy’s 
clothes around her own bundle, gather 
the sleeping child in her arms and steal 
quietly out of the room. Then the sun 
got too high up in the heavens to watch 
little runaway orphan girls. Nobody 
saw her steal through the deserted play- 
room, down the clean bare steps, which 
she had helped to wear away, and out 
through the yard to the coal-shed. 

32 


A Runaway Couple 

Here she got the reluctant Tommy into 
his clothes, and tied on his little round 
straw hat, so absurdly like her own. 

“Is we playin’ hie-spy, Yuvey?” 
asked the mystified youngster. 

“ Y es, T ommy,” she whispered, “ and 
we are going a long way to hide. You 
are my little boy now, and you must 
love me better than anything in the 
world. Say it, Tommy; say, 1 1 love you 
better r n anybody in the whole world. m 

“Will 1 det on de rollin' honor?" 
asked Tommy, thinking he was learn- 
ing his golden text. 

But Lovey Mary had forgotten her 
question. She was taking a farewell 
look at the home, every nook and cor- 
ner of which had suddenly grown dear. 
Already she seemed a thing apart, one 
33 


Lovey Mary 


having no right to its shelter and pro- 
tection. She turned to where Tommy 
was playing with some sticks in the cor- 
ner, and bidding him not to stir or 
speak until her return, she slipped back 
up the walk and into the kitchen. 
Swiftly and quietly she made a fire in 
the stove and filled the kettle with 
water. Then she looked about for some- 
thing more she might do. On the table 
lay the grocery book with a pencil at- 
tached. She thought a moment, then 
wrote laboriously under the last order: 
“Miss Bell I will take kere Tommy 
pleas dont be mad.” Then she softly 
closed the door behind her. 

A few minutes later she lifted 
Tommy out of the low shed window, 
and hurried him down the alley and out 
34 


/I Runaway Couple 

into the early morning streets. At the 
corner they took a car, and Tommy 
knelt by the window and absorbed the 
sights with rapt attention; to him the 
adventure was beginning brilliantly. 
Even Lovey Mary experienced a sense 
of exhilaration when she paid their fare 
out of one of the silver dollars. She 
knew the conductor was impressed, be- 
cause he said, “ You better watch Bud- 
dy's hat, ma'am." That 11 ma'am" 
pleased her profoundly; it caused her 
unconsciously to assume Miss Bell's 
tone and manner as she conversed with 
the back of Tommy's head. 

u We '11 go out on the avenue," she 
said. “ We '11 go from house to house 
till I get work. 'Most anybody would 
be glad to get a handy girl that can 
35 


Lovey Mary 


cook and wash and sew, only — I ain't 
very big, and then there 's you." 

“ Ain't that a big house?" shouted 
Tommy, half-way out of the window. 

“Yes; don't talk so loud. That's 
the court-house." 

“ Where they make court-plaster at?" 
inquired Tommy, shrilly. 

Lovey Mary glanced around un- 
easily. She hoped the old man in the 
corner had not heard this benighted 
remark. All went well until the car 
reached the terminal station. Here 
Tommy refused to get off. In vain 
Lovey Mary coaxed and threatened. 

“It '11 take us right back to the 
home," she pleaded. “Be a good boy 
and come with Lovey. I '11 buy you 
something nice." 


36 


A Runaway Couple 

T ommy remained obdurate. He be- 
lieved in letting well enough alone. The 
joys of a street-car ride were present 
and tangible; “ something nice” was 
vague, unsatisfying. 

“ Don't yer little brother want to git 
off?” asked the conductor, sympatheti- 
cally. 

“No, sir,” said Lovey Mary, trying 
to maintain her dignity while she strug- 
gled with her charge. “ If you please, 
sir, would you mind holding his feet 
while I loosen his hands?” 

T ommy, shrieking indignant protests, 
was borne from the car and deposited 
on the sidewalk. 

“ Don't you dare get limber ! ” threat- 
ened Lovey Mary. “ If you do I '11 
spank you right here on the street. 
3 7 


Lovey Mary 


Stand up! Straighten out your legs! 
Tommy! do you hear me?” 

Tommy might have remained limp 
indefinitely had not a hurdy-gurdy op- 
portunely arrived on the scene. It is 
true that he would go only in the direc- 
tion of the music, but Lovey Mary was 
delighted to have him go at all. When 
at last they were headed for the avenue, 
Tommy caused another delay. 

u I want my ducky,” he announced. 

The words brought consternation to 
Lovey Mary. She had fearfully antici- 
pated them from the moment of leaving 
the home. 

“ I ’ll buy you a ’tend-likeduck,” she 
said. 

u No; I want a sure- r nough ducky; I 
want mine.” 


38 


/? Runaway Couple 


Lovey Mary was exasperated. “Well, 
you can’t have yours. I can’t get it 
for you, and you might as well hush.” 

His lips trembled, and two large tears 
rolled down his round cheeks. When 
he was injured he was irresistible. 
Lovey Mary promptly surrendered. 

“ Don’t cry, baby boy ! Lovey ’ll get 
you one someway.” 

For some time the quest of the duck 
was fruitless. The stores they entered 
were wholesale houses for the most 
part, where men were rolling barrels 
about or stacking skins and hides on 
the sidewalk. 

11 Do you know what sort of a store 
they sell ducks at?” asked Lovey Mary 
of a colored man who was sweeping out 
an office. 


3 


39 


Lovey Mary 


“ Ducks !” repeated the negro, grin- 
ning at the queerly dressed children in 
their round straw hats. “Name o' de 
Lawd! What do you all want wif 
ducks?” 

Lovey Mary explained. 

“Would n T t a kitten do jes as well?” 
he asked kindly. 

“ I want my ducky,” whined Tommy, 
showing signs of returning storm. 

“ I don f see no way 'ceptV gwine to 
de mahket. Efen you tek de cah you 
kin ride plumb down dere.” 

Recent experience had taught Lovey 
Mary to be wary of street-cars, so they 
walked. At the market they found some 
ducks. The desired objects were hang- 
ing in a bunch with their limp heads 
tied together. Further inquiry, how- 
40 


Jl Runaway Couple 

ever, discovered some live ones in a 
coop. 

u They 're all mama ducks/ 1 objected 
Tommy. “I want a baby ducky. I 
want my little ducky ! tr 

When hefound he could do no better, 
he decided to take one of the large ones. 
Then he said he was hungry, so he and 
Mary took turn about holding it while 
the other ate “po r man’s pickle M and 
Wienerwurst. 

It was two o'clock by the time they 
reached the avenue, and by four they 
were foot-sore and weary, but they 
trudged bravely along from house to 
house asking for work. As dusk came 
on, thehouses, which afew squares back 
had been tall and imposing, seemed to 
be getting smaller and more insignifi- 
41 


Lovey Mary 


cant. Lovey Mary felt secure as long 
as she was on the avenue. She did not 
know that the avenue extended for 
many miles and that she had reached 
the frayed and ragged end of it. She 
and Tommy passed under a bridge, and 
after that the houses all seemed to be- 
have queerly. Some faced one way, 
some another, and crisscross between 
them, in front of them, and behind them 
ran a network of railroad tracks. 

“What 's the name of this street ?" 
asked Lovey Mary of a small, bare- 
footed girl. 

“'T ain't no street," answered the 
little girl, gazing with undisguised 
amazement at the strange-looking 
couple; “this here is the Cabbage 
Patch." 


42 








CHAPTER III 

THE HAZY HOUSEHOLD 

Here sovereign Dirt erects her sable throne. 

The house, the host, the hostess all her own." 

ISS HAZY was the 
submerged tenth of 
the Cabbage Patch, 
The submersion was 
mainly one of dirt 
and disorder, but 
Miss Hazy was such a meek, ineffi- 
cient little body that the Cabbage Patch 
withheld its blame and patiently tried 
to furnish a prop for the clinging vine. 
Miss Hazy, it is true, had Chris; but 




Lovey Mary 


Chris was unstable, not only because 
he bad lost one leg, but also because he 
was the wildest, noisiest, most thought- 
less youngster that ever shied a rock at 
a lamp-post. Miss Hazy had “ raised 11 
Chris, and the neighbors had raised 
Miss Hazy. 

When Lovey Mary stumbled over 
the Hazy threshold with the sleeping 
Tommy and the duck in her arms, Miss 
Hazy fluttered about in dismay. She 
pushed the flour-sifter farther over on 
the bed and made a place for Tommy, 
then she got a chair for the exhausted 
girl and hovered about her with little 
chirps of consternation. 

u Dear sakes ! Y ou T re done tuckered 
out, ain’t you? You an’ the baby got 
losted? Ain’t that too bad! Must I 
46 


The Hazy Household 


make you some tea? Only there ain r t 
no fire in the stove. Dear me! what 
ever will I do? Jes wait a minute; I r ll 
have to go ast Mis' Wiggs.” 

Inafewminutes Miss Hazyreturned. 
With her was a bright-faced little 
woman whose smile seemed to thaw out 
thefrozen places in Lovey Mary's heart 
and make her burst into tears on the 
motherly bosom. 

u There now, there,” said Mrs. 
Wiggs, hugging the girl up close and 
patting her on the back; u there ain r t 
no hole so deep can r t somebody pull 
you out. An' here J s me an' Miss Hazy 
jes waitin' to give you a h'ist.'' 

There was something so heartsome 
in her manner that Lovey Mary dried 
her eyes and attempted to explain. 

47 


Lovey Mary 


u I 'm tryin' to get a place," she began, 
“ but nobody wants to take T ommy too. 
I can r t carry him any further, and I 
don't know where to go, and it 's 'most 
night — " again the sobs choked her. 

“ Lawsee ! 99 said Mrs. Wiggs, “ don't 
you let that worry you! I can't take 
you home, 'cause Asia an' Australia 
an' Europeny are sleepin' in one bed 
as it is; but you kin git right in here 
with Miss Hazy, can't she, Miss Hazy?" 

The hostess, to whom Mrs. Wiggs 
was an oracle, acquiesced heartily. 

“All right: that 's fixed. Now I '11 
go home an' send you all over some 
nice, hot supper by Billy, an' to-morrow 
mornin' will be time enough to think 
things out." 

Lovey Mary, too exhausted to mind 
48 


The Hazy Household 


the dirt, ate her supper off a broken 
plate, then climbed over behind Tommy 
and the flour-sifter, and was soon fast 
asleep. 

The business meeting next morning 
“to think things out” resulted satis- 
factorily. At first Mrs. Wiggs was in- 
clined to ask questions and find out 
where the children came from, but when 
she saw Lovey Mary r s evident distress 
and embarrassment, she accepted the 
statement that they were orphans and 
that the girl was seeking work in order 
to take care of herself and the boy. It 
had come to be an unwritten law in the 
Cabbage Patch that as few questions as 
possible should be asked of strangers. 
People had come there before who could 
not give clear accounts of themselves. 
49 


Lovey Mary 


u Now I ’ll tell you what I think ’ll 
be best/’ said Mrs. Wiggs, who en- 
joyed untangling snarls. u Asia kin take 
Mary up to the fact’ry with her to- 
morrow, an’ see if she kin git her a 
job. I ’spect she kin, ’cause she stands 
right in with the lady boss. Miss Hazy, 
me an’ you kin keep a’ eye on the baby 
between us. If Mary gits a place she 
kin pay you so much a week, an’ that ’ll 
help us all out, ’cause then we won’t 
have to send in so many outside victuals. 
If she could make three dollars an’ 
Chris three, you all could git along 
right peart.” 

Lovey Mary stayed in the house most 
of the day. She was almost afraid to 
look out of the little window, for fear 
she should see Miss Bell or Kate Rider 
50 


The Hazy Household 


coming. She sat in the only chair that 
had a bottom and diligently worked but- 
tonholes for Miss Hazy. 

u Looks like there ain’t never no time 
to clean up,” said Miss Hazy, apolo- 
getically, as she shoved Chris’s Sunday 
clothes and a can of coal-oil behind the 
door. 

Lovey Mary looked about her and 
sighed deeply. The room was brimful 
and spilling over: trash, tin cans, and 
bottles overflowed the window-sills; a 
crippled rocking-chair, with a faded 
quilt over it, stood before the stove, in 
the open oven of which Chris’s shoe was 
drying; an old sewing-machine stood 
in the middle of the floor, with Miss 
Hazy’s sewing on one end of it and the 
uncleared dinner-dishes on the other. 

51 


Lovey Mary 


Mary could not see under the bed, but 
she knew from the day's experience 
that it was used as a combination store- 
room and wardrobe. She thought of 
the home with its bare, clean rooms and 
its spotless floors. She rose abruptly 
and went out to the rear of the house, 
where Tommy was playing with Euro- 
pena Wiggs. They were absorbed in 
trying to hitch the duck to a spool-box, 
and paid little attention to her. 

“ Tommy, " she said, clutching his 
arm, “don't you want to go back?" 

But Tommy had tasted freedom; he 
had had one blissful day unwashed, un- 
combed, and uncorrected. 

“No," he declared stoutly; “I 'm 
doin' to stay to this house and play wiv 
You 're-a-peanut." 

52 





























The Hazy Household 


“Then,” said Mary, with deep resig- 
nation, “the only thing for me to do is 
to try to clean things up.” 

When she went back into the house 
she untied her bundle and took out the 
remaining dollar. 

“ I '11 be back soon,” she said to Miss 
Hazy as she stepped over a basket of 
potatoes. “I 'm just going over to 
Mrs. Wiggs's a minute.” 

She found her neighbor alone, get- 
ting supper. “ Please, ma'am,” — she 
plunged into her subject at once, — 
“have any of your girls a dress for 
sale? I 've got a dollar to buy it.” 

Mrs. Wiggs turned the girl around 
and surveyed her critically. “Well, I 
don't know as I blame you fer wantin' 
to git shut of that one. There ain't 
55 


Lovey Mary 


more 'n room enough fer one leg in that 
skirt, let alone two, An' what was the 
sense in them big shiny buttons? " 

“ I don't know as it makes much dif- 
ference," said Lovey Mary, disconso- 
lately; “I 'm so ugly, nothing could 
make me look nice." 

Mrs. Wiggs shook her by the shoul- 
ders good-naturedly. “Now, here," 
she said, “don't you go an' git sorry 
fer yerself! That 's one thing I can't 
stand in nobody. There 's always lots 
of other folks you kin be sorry fer 'stid 
of yerself. Ain't you proud you ain't 
got a harelip? Why, that one thought 
is enough to keep me from ever gittin' 
sorry fer myself." 

Mary laughed, and Mrs. Wiggs 
clapped her hands. “ That 's what yer 
56 


The Hazy Household 


face needs — smiles! I never see any- 
thing make such a difference. But now 
about the dress. Yes, indeed, Asia has 
got dresses to give ’way. She gits ’em 
from Mrs. Reddin’ ; her husband is Mr. 
Bob, Billy’s boss. He ’s a newspaper 
editress an’ rich as cream. Mrs. Red- 
din’ is a fallen angel, if there ever was 
one on this earth. She sends all sorts 
of clothes to Asia, an’ I warm ’em over 
an’ boil ’em down till they ’re her size. 
Asia Minor!” she called to a girl who 
was coming in the door, “this here is 
Mary — Lovey Mary she calls herself, 
Miss Hazy’s boarder. Have you got 
a dress you could give her?” 

“I ’m going to buy it,” said Mary, 
immediately on the defensive. She did 
not want them to think for a moment 
57 


Lovey Mary 


that she was begging* She would show 
them that she had money, that she was 
just as good as they were. 

u Well, maw," the other girl was say- 
ing in a drawling voice as she looked 
earnestly at Lovey Mary, “ seems to me 
she ’d look purtiest in my red dress. 
Her hair ’s so nice an* black an’ her 
teeth so white, I ’low the red would 
look best.” 

Mrs. Wiggs gazed at her daughter 
with adoring eyes. u Ain’t that the 
artis’ stickin’ out through her? Could 
n’t you tell she handles paints? Up at 
the fact’ry she ’s got a fine job, paints 
flowers an’ wreaths on to bath-tubs. 
Yes, indeed, this here red one is what 
you must have. Keep your dollar, 
child; the dress never cost us a cent. 

58 





The Hazy Household 


Here r s a nubia, too, you kin have; 
it *11 look better than that little hat you 
had on last night. That little hat wor- 
ried me; it looked like the stopper was 
too little fer the bottle. There now, take 
the things right home with you, an* to- 
morrow you an* Asia kin start off in 
style.” 

Lovey Mary, flushed with the intoxi- 
cation of her first compliment, went 
back and tried on the dress. Miss Hazy 
got so interested that she forgot to get 
supper. 

“ You look so nice I never would *a* 
knowed you in the world !** she de- 
clared. “You don r t look picked, like 
you did in that other dress.” 

“That Wiggs girl said I looked nice 
in red,” said Lovey Mary, tentatively. 

4 61 


Lovey Mary 


“ You do, too/' said Miss Hazy; “it 
keeps you from lookin* sc corpsey. I 
wisht you *d do somethin* with yer 
hair, though; it puts me in mind of 
snakes in them long black plaits/* 

All Lovey Mary needed was encour- 
agement. She puffed her hair at the 
top and sides and tucked it up in the 
latest fashion. Tommy, coming in at 
the door, did not recognize her. She 
laughed delightedly. 

“ Do I look so different?** 

“ I should say you do,** said Miss 
Hazy, admiringly, as she spread a 
newspaper for a table-cloth. “ I never 
seen no one answer to primpin* like 
you do.** 

When it was quite dark Lovey Mary 
rolled something in a bundle and crept 
62 


The Hazy Household 


out of the house. After glancing cau- 
tiously up and down the tracks she 
made her way to the pond on the com- 
mons and dropped her bundle into the 
shallow waters 

Next day, when Mrs. Schultz’s goat 
died of convulsions, nobody knew it was 
due to the china buttons on Lovey 
Mary’s gingham dress. 


63 


CHAPTER IV 

AN ACCIDENT AND AN INCIDENT 

“ Our deeds, still travel with us from afar, 

And what we have been makes us what we are." 

HROUGH the assis- 
tance of Asia Wiggs, 
Lovey Mary secured 
pleasant and profita- 
ble work at the fac- 
tory; but her mind 
was not at peace. Of course it was a 
joy to wear the red dress and arrange 
her hair a different way each morning, 
but there was a queer, restless little 
feeling in her heart that spoiled even 
64 



An Accident and an Incident 


the satisfaction of looking like other 
girls and earning three dollars a week. 
The very fact that . nobody took her to 
task, that nobody scolded or blamed 
her, caused her to ask herself disturbing 
questions. Secret perplexity had the 
same effect upon her that it has upon 
many who are older and wiser: it made 
her cross. 

Two days after she started to work, 
Asia, coming down from the decorating- 
room for lunch, found her in fiery dis- 
pute with a red-haired girl. There had 
been an accident in front of the factory, 
and the details were under discussion. 

“Well, I know all about it,” declared 
the red-haired girl, excitedly, “'cause 
my sister was the first one that got to 
her.” 


65 


Lovey Mary 


“Is your sister a nigger named Jim 
Brown ?” asked Lovey Mary, deri- 
sively. “ Everybody says he was the 
first one got there.” 

“Was there blood on her head?” 
asked Asia, trying to stem the tide of 
argument. 

“Yes, indeed,” said the first speaker; 
“on her head an r on her hands, too. I 
hanged on the steps when they was 
puttin' her in the ambalance-wagon, 
an' she never knowed a bloomin' 
thing! ” 

“Why did n't you go on with them 
to the hospital?” asked Lovey Mary. 
“ I don't see how the doctors could get 
along without you.” 

“Oh, you 're just mad 'cause you 
did n't see her. She was awful pretty! 

66 


An Accident and an Incident 


Had on a black hat with a white feather 
in it, but it got in the mud. They say 
she had a letter in her pocket with her 
name on it.” 

“ I thought maybe she come to long 
enough to tell you her name,” teased 
her tormentor. 

“Well, I do know it, Smarty,” re- 
torted the other, sharply: “it 's Miss 
Kate Rider.” 

Meanwhile in the Cabbage Patch 
Miss Hazy and Mrs. Wiggs were hold- 
ing a consultation over the fence. 

“She come over to my house first,” 
Mrs. Wiggs was saying, dramatically 
illustrating her remarks with two tin 
cans. “This is me here, an' I looks 
up an' seen the old lady standin' over 
there. She put me in mind of a graven 
67 


Lovey Mary 


image. She had on a sorter gray 
mournin’, did n’t she, Miss Hazy?” 

“ Yes, ’m ; that was the way it struck 
me. Bein’ gray, I ’lowed it was fersome 
one she did n’t keer fer pertickler.” 

“ An’ gent’s cuffs,” continued Mrs. 
Wiggs; “I noticed them right off. 
*’Scuse me,’ says she, snappin’ her 
mouth open an’ shut like a trap — * ’scuse 
me, but have you seen anything of two 
strange childern in this neighborhood?’ 
I th’owed my apron over Lovey Mary’s 
hat, that I was trimmin’. I was n’t 
goin’ to tell till I found out what that 
widder woman was after. But before 
I was called upon to answer, Tommy 
come tearin’ round the house chasin’ 
Cusmoodle.” 

“Who?” 


68 


/ In Accident and an Incident 


''Cusmoodle, the duck. I named it 
this mornin'. Well, when the lady seen 
Tommy she started up, then she set 
down ag'in, holdin' her skirts up all 
the time to keep ’em from techin' the 
floor. * How 'd they git here?' she ast, 
so relieved-like that I thought she must 
be kin to 'em. So I up an' told her 
all I knew. I told her if she wanted 
to find out anything about us she could 
ast Mrs. Reddin' over at Terrace Park. 
' Mrs. Robert Reddin'?' says she, look- 
in' dumfounded. 'Yes,' says I, 'the 
finest lady, rich or poor, in Kentucky, 
unless it 's her husband.' Then she 
went on an' ast me goin' on a hunderd 
questions 'bout all of us an' all of you 
all, an' 'bout the fact'ry. She even 
ast me where we got our water at, an' 
69 


Lovey Mary 


if you kept yer house healthy, I told 
her Lovey Mary had made Chris carry 
out more r n a wheelbarrow full of dirt 
ever' night since she had been here, 
an 7 1 guess it would be healthy by the 
time she got through/ 1 

Miss Hazy moved uneasily, “ I told 
her I could n’t clean up much ’count of 
the rheumatism, an’ phthisic, an’ these 
here dizzy spells — ” 

“ I bet she did n’t git a chance to 
talk much if you got started on yer 
symptims,” interrupted Mrs, Wiggs. 

“ Did n’t you think she was a’ awful 
haughty talker?” 

“No, indeed. She took on mighty 
few airs fer a person in mournin’. 
When she riz to go, she says, real kind 
fer such a stern-faced woman, 1 Do the 
70 


y 









•» 




















































/In Accident and an Incident 


childern seem well an' happy ?' * Yes, 

'm; they 're well, all right/ says L 
1 Tommy he T s like a colt what 's been 
stabled up all winter an' is let out fer 
the first time. As fer Mary/ I says, 
1 she seems kinder low in her mind, looks 
awful pestered most of the time. 7 1 It 
won't hurt her/ says the lady. 1 Keep 
a' eye on 'em/ says she, puttin' some 
money in my hand , 1 an' if you need any 
more, I 'll leave it with Mrs. Reddin'.' 
Then she cautioned me pertickler not 
to say nothin' 'bout her havin' been 
here." 

“She told me not to tell, too," said 
Miss Hazy; “but I don't know what 
we 're goin' to say to Mrs. Schultz. 
She 'most sprained her back tryin' to 
see who it was, an' Mrs. Eichorn come 
73 


Lovey Mary 


over twicet pertendinMike she wanted 
to borrow a corkscrew driver." 

“Tell 'em she was a newfangled 
agent/* said Mrs. Wiggs, with unblush- 
ing mendacity — “a* agent fer shoe- 
strings." 


74 


CHAPTER V 

THE DAWN OF A ROMANCE 


“ There is in the worst of fortunes 
The best of chances for a happy change 

DOD land! you all 1 re 
so clean in here I 'm 
feared of ketchin' the 
pneumony." Mrs. 
Wiggs stood in Miss 
Hazy's kitchen and 
smiled approval at the marvelous trans- 
formation. 

“Well, now, I don't think it 's right 
healthy," complained Miss Hazy, who 
was sitting at the machine, with her 
75 



Lovey Mary 


feet on a soap-box; “so much water 
sloppin' round is mighty apt to give a 
person a cold. But Lovey Mary says 
she can't stand it no other way. She 's 
mighty set, Mis r Wiggs." 

“Yes, an' that 's jes what you need, 
Miss Hazy. You never was set 'bout 
nothin' in yer life. Lovey Mary 's jes 
took you an' the house an' ever'thing 
in hand, an' in four weeks got you all 
to livin' like white folks. I ain't claim- 
in' she ain't sharp-tongued; I 'low 
she 's sassed 'bout ever'body in the 
Patch but me by now. But she 's 
good, an' she 's smart, an' some of her 
sharp corners '11 git pecked off afore 
her hair grows much longer." 

“Oh, mercy me! here she comes 
76 


The T)awn of a Romance 


now to git her lunch,” said Miss Hazy, 
with chagrin. “ I ain't got a thing 
fixed.” 

“ You go on an r sew; I 'll mess up a 
little somethin' fer her. She ’ll stop, 
anyway, to talk to Tommy. Did you 
ever see anything to equal the way she 
takes on 'bout that child? She jes 
natchally analyzes him.” 

Lovey Mary, however, did not stop 
as usual to play with Tommy. She 
came straight to the kitchen and sat 
down on the door-step, looking worried 
and preoccupied. 

“How comes it you ain't singin'?” 
asked Mrs. Wiggs. “If I had a voice 
like yourn, folks would have to stop up 
their years with cotton. I jes find my- 
77 


Lovey Mary 


self watchin' fer you to come home, 
so y s I kin hear you singin* them pretty 
duets round the house.” 

Lovey Mary smiled faintly; for a 
month past she had been unconsciously 
striving to live up to Mrs. Wiggs's 
opinion of her, and the constant praise 
and commendation of that u courageous 
captain of compliment” had moved her 
to herculean effort. 

But a sudden catastrophe threatened 
her. She sat on the door-step, white 
and miserable. Held tight in the hand 
that was thrust in her pocket was a 
letter; it was a blue letter addressed 
to Miss Hazy in large, dashing char- 
acters. Lovey Mary had got it from 
the postman as she went out in the 
morning; for five hours she had been 
78 


rrrrffl 


♦ 



I 







The (Dawn of a Romance 


racked with doubt concerning it. She 
felt that it could refer but to one sub- 
ject, and that was herself. Perhaps 
Miss Bell had discovered her hiding- 
place, or, worse still, perhaps Kate 
Rider had seen her at the factory and 
was writing for Tommy. Lovey Mary 
crushed the letter in her hand; she 
would not give it to Miss Hazy. She 
would outwit Kate again. 

“All right, honey/ 1 called Mrs. 
Wiggs; “here you are. r T ain’t much 
of a lunch, but it ’ll fill up the gaps. 
Me an’ Miss Hazy jes been talkin’ 
’bout you.” 

Lovey Mary glanced up furtively. 
Could they have suspected anything? 

“ Did n’t yer years sorter burn? We 
was speakin’ of the way you ’d slicked 


Lovey Mary 


things up round here. I was a-sayin' 
even if you was a sorter repeatin'-rifle 
when it come to answerin' back, you 
was a good, nice girl." 

Lovey Mary smoothed out the 
crumpled letter in her pocket. “ I 'm 
'fraid I ain't as good as you make me 
out," she said despondently. 

“ Oh, yes, she is," said Miss Hazy, 
with unusual animation; “she 's a rale 
good girl, when she ain't sassy." 

This unexpected praise was too much 
for Lovey Mary. She snatched the let- 
ter from her pocket and threw it on the 
table, not daring to trust her good im- 
pulse to last beyond the minute. 

“'Miss Marietta Hazy, South Ave- 
nue and Railroad Crossing,'" read 
Mrs. Wiggs, in amazement. 

82 


The T>awn of a Romance 


“Oh, surely it ain't got me on the 
back of it!” cried Miss Hazy, rising 
hurriedly from the machine and peer- 
ing over her glasses. “You open it, 
Mis' Wiggs; I ain't got the nerve 
to." 

With chattering teeth and trembling 
hands Lovey Mary sat before her un- 
tasted food. She could hear Tommy's 
laughter through the open window, and 
the sound brought tears to her eyes. 
But Mrs. Wiggs's voice recalled her, 
and she nerved herself for the worst. 

11 Miss Hazy . 

u DEAR Miss [Mrs. Wiggs read from the large 
type-written sheet before her] : Why not study the 
planets and the heavens therein? In casting your 
future, I find that thou wilt have an active and 
succesful year for business, but beware of the 
law. You are prudent and amiable and have a 
lively emagination. You will have many enne- 

83 


Lovey Mary 


mies ; but fear not, for in love you will be faitful 
and sincer, and are fitted well fer married life.” 

“They surely ain't meanin' me?" 
asked Miss Hazy, in great perturbation. 

“ Yes y ma’arriy " said Mrs. Wiggs, em- 
phatically; “it 's you, plain as day. 
Let 's go on: 

“ Your star fortells you a great many lucky 
events. You are destined to a brilliant succes, 
but you will have to earn it by good conduct. Let 
wise men lead you. Your mildness against the 
wretched will bring you the friendship of everybody. 
Enclosed you will find a spirit picture of your 
future pardner. If you will send twenty-five cents 
with the enclosed card, which you will fill out, we 
will put you in direct correspondance with the 
gentleman, and the degree ordained by the planets 
will thus be fulfilled. Please show this circuler 
to your friends, and oblige 

“Astrologer” 

As the reading proceeded, Lovey 
Mary's fears gradually diminished, 
84 


The Dawn of a Romance 


and with a sigh of relief she applied 
herself to her lunch. But if the letter 
had proved of no consequence to her, 
such was not the case with the two 
women standing at the window. Miss 
Hazy was re-reading the letter, vainly 
trying to master the contents. 

“ Mary,” she said, “git up an' see if 
you kin find my other pair of lookin'- 
glasses. Seems like I can't git the sense 
of it.” 

Mrs. Wiggs meanwhile was excit- 
edly commenting on the charms of the 
“spirit picture”: 

“ My, but he 's stylish ! Looks fer 
all the world like a' insurance agent. 
Looks like he might be a little tall to 
his size, but I like statute men better 'n 
dumpy ones. I bet he 's got a lot of 
85 


Lovey Mary 


nice manners. Ain’t his smile pleas- 
ant ?” 

Miss Hazy seized the small picture 
with trembling fingers. “ I don’t seem 
to git on to what it r s all about, Mis’ 
Wiggs. Ain’t they made a mistake or 
somethin’?” 

“No, indeed; there r s no mistake at 
all,” declared Mrs. W iggs. “Yer name’s 
on the back, an r it ’s meant fer you. 
Someway yer name r s got out as bein’ 
single an’ needin’ takin’ keer of, an’ 
I reckon this here ’strologer, or con- 
jurer, or whatever he is, seen yer good 
fortune in the stars an’ jes wanted to 
let you know ’bout it.” 

“ Does he want to get married with 
her?” asked Lovey Mary, beginning to 
realize the grave importance of the sub- 
ject under discussion. 

86 



r 





The T)awn of a Romance 


“Well, it may lead to that,” an- 
swered Mrs. Wiggs, hopefully. Surely 
only a beneficent Providence could 
have offered such an unexpected solu- 
tion to the problem of Miss Hazy's 
future. 

Miss Hazy herself uttered faint pro- 
tests and expostulations, but in spite of 
herself she was becoming influenced by 
Mrs. Wiggs's enthusiasm. 

“ Oh, shoo ! ” she repeated again and 
again. “ I ain't never had no thought 
of marryin'.'' 

“ Course you ain't,'' said Mrs.Wiggs. 
“Good enough reason: you ain't had 
a show before. Seems to me you 'd 
be flyin' straight in the face of Provi- 
dence to refuse a stylish, sweet-smilin' 
man like that.” 

“He is fine-lookin',” acknowledged 
89 


Lovey Mary 


Miss Hazy, trying not to appear too 
pleased; “only I wisht his years did n't 
stick out so much," 

Mrs. Wiggs was exasperated. 

“ Lawsee ! Miss Hazy, what do you 
think he 'll think of yer figger? Have 
you got so much to brag on, that you 
kin go to pickin' him to pieces? Do 
you suppose I 'd 'a' dared to judge 
Mr. Wiggs that away? Why, Mr. 
Wiggs's nose was as long as a clothes- 
pin; but I would no more 'a' thought 
of his nose without him than I would 
'a' thought of him without the nose." 

“Well, what do you think I 'd orter 
do 'bout it?" asked Miss Hazy. 

“I ain't quite made up my mind," 
said her mentor. “ I '11 talk it over 
with the neighbors. But I 'spect, if we 
90 


The Dawn of a (Romance 


kin skeer up a quarter, that you 'll an- 
swer by the morning mail.” 

That night Lovey Mary sat in her 
little attic room and held Tommy close 
to her hungry heart. All day she 
worked with the thought of coming 
back to him at night; but with night 
came the dustman, and in spite of her 
games and stories Tommy’s blue eyes 
would get full of the sleep-dust. To- 
night, however, he was awake and 
talkative. 

“ Ain't I dot no muvver?” he asked. 

“No,” said Lovey Mary, after a 
pause. 

“Did n't I never had no muvver?” 

Lovey Mary sat him up in her lap 
and looked into his round, inquiring 
eyes. Her very love for him hardened 
91 


Lovey Mary 


her heart against the one who had 
wronged him. 

“Yes, darling, you had a mother 
once, but she was a bad mother, a mean, 
bad, wicked mother. I hate her — hate 
her ! " Lovey Mary's voice broke in a 
sob. 

“Ma — ry;aw,Ma — ry !" called Miss 
Hazy up the stairs. “You 'll have to 
come down here to Chris. He 's went 
to sleep with all his clothes on 'crost 
my bed, an' I can't git him up." 

Lovey Mary tucked Tommy under 
the cover and went to Miss Hazy's as- 
sistance. 

“One night I had to set up all night 
'cause he would n't git up," com- 
plained Miss Hazy, in hopelessly in- 
jured tones. 


92 


The Tiawn of a Romance 


Lovey Mary wasted no time in idle 
coaxing. She seized a broom and 
rapped the sleeper sharply on the legs. 
His peg-stick was insensible to this in- 
sult, but one leg kicked a feeble pro- 
test. In vain Lovey Mary tried violent 
measures; Chris simply shifted his 
position and slumbered on. Finally 
she resorted to strategy: 

“ Listen, Miss Hazy ! Ain't that the 
fire-engine ?” 

In a moment Chris was hanging half 
out of the window, demanding, “ Where 
at?” 

“You great big lazy boy!” scolded 
Lovey Mary, as she put Miss Hazy r s 
bed in order. “ I '11 get you to behaving 
mighty different if I stay here long 
enough. What 's this?” she added, 
93 


Lovey Mary 


pulling something from under Miss 
Hazy's pillow. 

“Oh, it ain't nothin'/' cried Miss 
Hazy, reaching for it eagerly. But 
Lovey Mary had recognized the “ spirit 
picture." 


94 


CHAPTER VI 

THE LOSING OF MR. STUBBINS 


4 ‘ Love is not love 
Which alters when it alteration finds, 
Or bends with the remover to remove." 



JjF the Cabbage Patch 
had pinned its faith 
upon the efficiency 
of the matrimonial 
agency in regard to 
the disposal of Miss 
Hazy, it was doomed to disappointment. 
The events that led up to the final 
catastrophe were unique in that they 
cast no shadows before. 

Miss Hazy's letters, dictated by Mrs. 

95 


Lovey Mary 


Wiggs and penned by Lovey Mary, 
were promptly and satisfactorily an- 
swered. The original of the spirit 
picture proved to be one Mr. Stubbins, 
“a prominent citizen of Bagdad Junc- 
tion who desired to marry some one in 
the city. The lady must be of good 
character and without incumbrances.” 
“That 's all right,” Mrs. Wiggs had 
declared; “you need n't have no incum- 
brances. If he '11 take keer of you, 
we* '11 all look after Chris.” 

The wooing had been ideally simple. 
Mr. Stubbins, with the impetuosity of 
a new lover, demanded an early meet- 
ing. It was a critical time, and the 
Cabbage Patch realized the necessity 
of making the first impression a favor- 
able one. Mrs. Wiggs took pictures 
96 







































































s 


































The Losing of Mr . Stubbins 


from her walls and chairs from her 
parlor to beautify the house of Hazy. 
Old Mrs. Schultz, who was confined 
to her bed, sent over her black silk 
dress for Miss Hazy to wear. Mrs. 
Eichorn, with deep insight into the 
nature of man, gave a pound-cake and 
a pumpkin-pie. Lovey Mary scrubbed, 
and dusted, and cleaned, and superin- 
tended the toilet of the bride elect. 

The important day had arrived, and 
with it Mr. Stubbins. To the many 
eyes that surveyed him from behind 
shutters and half-open doors he was 
something of a disappointment. Mrs. 
Wiggs's rosy anticipations had invested 
him with the charms of an Apollo, while 
Mr. Stubbins, in reality, was far from 
godlike. “My land! he 9 s lanker r n 
99 


Lovey Mary 


a bean-pole/* exclaimed Mrs. Eichorn, 
in disgust. But then Mrs. Eichorn 
weighed two hundred, and her judg- 
ment was warped. Taking everything 
into consideration, the prospects had 
been most flattering. Mr. Stubbins, 
sitting in Mrs. Wiggs's most com- 
fortable chair, with a large slice of 
pumpkin-pie in his hand, and with 
Miss Hazy opposite arrayed in Mrs. 
Schultz's black silk, had declared him- 
self ready to marry at once. And Mrs. 
Wiggs, believing that a groom in the 
hand is worth two in the bush, promptly 
precipitated the courtship into a wed- 
ding. 

The affair proved the sensation of the 
hour, and u Miss Hazy's husband" was 
the cynosure of all eyes. For one brief 
100 






















































*• 


























The Losing of Mr ♦ Stubhins 


week the honeymoon shed its beguiling 
light on the neighborhood, then it suf- 
fered a sudden and ignominious eclipse. 

The groom got drunk. 

Mary was clearing away the supper- 
dishes when she was startled by a cry 
from Miss Hazy: 

“ My sakes ! Lovey Mary ! Look at 
Mr. Stubhins a-comin r up the street! 
Do you s r pose he f s had a stroke? ” 

Lovey Mary ran to the window and 
beheld the “ prominent citizen of Bag- 
dad Junction 11 in a state of unmistaka- 
ble intoxication. He was bareheaded 
and hilarious, and used the fence as a 
life-preserver. Miss Hazy wrung her 
hands and wept. 

“Oh, what T 11 I do?” she wailed. “I 
do b’lieve he 1 s had somethin 1 to drink. 
6 103 


Lovey Mary 


I ain't goin' to stay an' meet him, 
Mary; I 'm goin' to hide. I allays was 
skeered of drunken men." 

“I 'm not," said Mary, stoutly. “You 
go on up in my room and lock the door; 
I 'm going to stay here and keep him 
from messing up this kitchen. I want 
to tell him what I think of him, any- 
how. I just hate that man! I believe 
you do, too, Miss Hazy." 

Miss Hazy wept afresh. “Well, he 
ain't my kind, Mary. I know I 'd had 
n't orter marry him, but it 'pears like 
ever' woman sorter wants to try gittin' 
married oncet anyways. I never would 
'a' done it, though, if Mrs. Wiggs had 
n't 'a' sicked me on." 

By this time Mr. Stubbins had reached 
the yard, and Miss Hazy fled. Lovey 
104 


The Losing of Mr . Stubbins 


Mary barricaded Tommy in a corner 
with his playthings and met the delin- 
quent at the door. Her eyes blazed and 
her cheeks were aflame. This modern 
David had no stones and sling to slay 
her Goliath ; she had only a vocabulary 
full of stinging words which she hurled 
forth with indignation and scorn. Mr. 
Stubbins had evidently been abused be- 
fore, for he paid no attention to the 
girl's wrath. He passed jauntily to the 
stove and tried to pour a cup of coffee; 
the hot liquid missed the cup and 
streamed over his wrist and hand. 
Howling with pain and swearing vocif- 
erously, he flung the coffee-pot out of 
the window, kicked a chair across the 
room, then turned upon Tommy, who 
was adding shrieks of terror to the gen- 
105 


Lovey Mary 


eral uproar. “Stop that infernal yell- 
ing !” he cried savagely, as he struck 
the child full in the face with his heavy 
hand. 

Lovey Mary sprang forward and 
seized the poker. All the passion of 
her wild little nature was roused. She 
stole up behind him as he knelt before 
Tommy, and lifted the poker to strike. 
A pair of terrified blue eyes arrested 
her. Tommy forgot to cry, in sheer 
amazement at what she was about to 
do. Ashamed of herself, she threw the 
poker aside,* and taking advantage of 
Mr. Stubbins's crouching position, she 
thrust him suddenly backward into the 
closet. The manceuver was a brilliant 
one, for while Mr. Stubbins was un- 
steadily separating himself from the 
106 


The Losing of Mr . Stubbins 


debris into which he had been cast, 
Lovey Mary slammed the door and 
locked it. Then she picked up Tommy 
and fled out of the house and across 
the yard. 

Mrs. Wiggs was sitting on her back 
porch pretending to knit, but in truth 
absorbed in a wild game of tag which 
the children were having on the com- 
mons. “That T s right,” she was calling 
excitedly — “that *s right, Chris Hazy! 
You kin ketch as good as any of ’em, 
even if you have got a peg-stick.” But 
when she caught sight of Mary T s white, 
distressed face and Tommy’s streaming 
eyes, she dropped her work and held 
out her arms. When Maryhad finished 
her story Mrs. Wiggs burst forth: 

“An r to think I run her up ag r in r 
107 


Lovey Mary 


this! Ain’t men deceivin’? Now I ’d 
’a’ risked Mr. Stubbins myself fer the 
askin’. It ’s true he was a widower, 
an’ ma uster allays say, 1 Don’t fool 
with widowers, grass nor sod.’ But 
Mr. Stubbins was soslick-tongued ! He 
told me yesterday he had to take liquor 
sometime fer his war enjury.” 

“But, Mrs. Wiggs, what must we 
do?” asked Lovey Mary, too absorbed 
in the present to be interested in the past. 

“Do? Why, we got to git Miss Hazy 
out of this here hole. It ain’t no use 
consultin’ her; I allays have said talkin’ 
to Miss Hazy was like pullin’ out bast- 
in’-threads: you jes take out what you 
put in. Me an’ you has got to think 
out a plan right here an’ now, then go 
to work an’ carry it out.” 

108 


The Losing of Mr ♦ Stubbins 


u Could n’t we get the agency to take 
him back?” suggested Mary. 

“No, indeed; they could n’t afford 
to do that. Lemme see t lemme see — ” 
For five minutes Mrs. Wiggs rocked 
meditatively, soothing Tommy to sleep 
as she rocked. When she again spoke 
it was with inspiration: 

“I ’ve got it! It looks sometime, 
Lovey Mary, ’s if I ’d sorter caught 
some of Mr.Wiggs’s brains in thinkin’ 
things out. They ain’t but one thing to 
do with Miss Hazy’s husband, an’ we ’ll 
do it this very night.” 

“ What, Mrs. Wiggs? What is it?” 
asked Lovey Mary, eagerly. 

u Why, to lose him, of course ! We ’ll 
wait till Mr. Stubbins is dead asleep; 
you know men allays have to sleep off 
109 


Lovey Mary 


a jag like this* I 've seen Mr. Wiggs — 
I mean I 've heared 'em say so many 
a time. Well, when Mr. Stubbins is 
sound asleep, you an' me an' Billy will 
drag him out to the railroad." 

Mrs. Wiggs's voice had sunk to a 
hoarse whisper, and her eyes looked 
fierce in the twilight. 

Lovey Mary shuddered. 

“ You ain't going to let the train run 
over him, are you?" she asked. 

“Lor', child, I ain't a' 'ssassinator ! 
No; we '11 wait till the midnight freight 
comes along, an' when it stops fer 
water, we '11 h'ist Mr. Stubbins into one 
of them empty cars. The train goes 
'way out West somewheres, an' by the 
time Mr. Stubbins wakes up, he '11 be 
so far away from home he won't have 
no money to git back." 

1 10 






















































The Losing of Mr . Stubbins 


“What '11 Miss Hazy say?" asked 
Mary, giggling in nervous excitement, 

“Miss Hazy ain't got a thing to do 
with it," replied Mrs. Wiggs, con- 
clusively. 

At midnight, by the dark of the 
moon, the unconscious groom was borne 
out of the Hazy cottage. Mrs. Wiggs 
carried his head, while Billy Wiggs and 
Mary and Asia and Chris officiated at 
his arms and legs. The bride surveyed 
the scene from the chinks of the up- 
stairs shutters. 

Silently the little group waited until 
the lumbering freight-train slowed up 
to take water, then with a concerted ef- 
fort they lifted the heavy burden into 
an empty car. As they shrank back 
into the shadow, Billy whispered to 
Lovey Mary: 


1 1 1 


Lovey Mary 


“Say, what was that you put r long- 
side of him?” 

Mary looked shamefaced. 

“It was just a little lunch-dinner,” 
she said apologetically; “it seemed 
sorter mean to send him off without 
anything to eat.” 

“Gee! ” said Billy. “You're acur'us 
girl!” 

The engine whistled, and the train 
moved thunderously away, bearing an 
unconscious passenger, who, as far as 
the Cabbage Patch was concerned, was 
henceforth submerged in the darkness 
of oblivion. 


I 12 


CHAPTER VII 


NEIGHBORLY ADVICE 


* It 's a poor business looking at the sun with a cloudy face.” 

"HE long, hot summer 
days that followed 
were full of trials for 
Lovey Mary* Day 
after day the great 
unwinking sun glared 
savagely down upon the Cabbage Patch, 
upon the stagnant pond, upon the 
gleaming rails, upon the puffing trains 
that pounded by hour after hour* Each 
morning found Lovey Mary trudging 
1 13 



Lovey Mary 


away to the factory, where she stood 
all day counting and sorting and pack- 
ing tiles. At night she climbed wearily 
to her little room under the roof, and 
tried to sleep with a wet cloth over her 
face to keep her from smelling the 
stifling car smoke. 

But it was not the heat and discom- 
fort alone that made her cheeks thin 
and her eyes sad and listless : it was the 
burden on her conscience, which seemed 
to be growing heavier all the time. One 
morning Mrs. Wiggs took her to task 
for her gloomy countenance. They met 
at the pump, and, while the former's 
bucket was being filled, Lovey Mary 
leaned against a lamp-post and waited 
in a dejected attitude. 

“What 's the matter with you?" 
1 14 


Neighborly Advice 


asked Mrs. Wiggs. 44 What you lookin' 
so wilted about ?" 

Lovey Mary dug her shoe into the 
ground and said nothing. Many a time 
had she been tempted to pour forth her 
story to this friendly mentor, but the 
fear of discovery and her hatred of 
Kate deterred her* 

Mrs. Wiggs eyed her keenly. 44 Pes- 
terin' 'bout somethin'?" she asked. 

“Yes, 'm," said Lovey Mary, in a 
low tone. 

“Somethin' that 's a'ready did?" 

“Yes, 'm" — still lower. 

“ Did you think you was actin' fer the 
best ?" 

The girl lifted a pair of honest gray 
eyes. “Yes, ma'am, I did." 

“I bet you did!" said Mrs. Wiggs, 

1 15 


Lovey Mary 


heartily. “You ain r t got a deceivin’ 
bone in yer body. Now what you want 
to do is to brace up yer sperrits. The 
decidin’-time was the time fer wor- 
ryin’. You ’ve did what you thought 
was best ; now you want to stop thinkin’ 
Tout it. You don’t want to go round 
turnin’ folks’ thoughts sour jes to look 
at you. Most girls that had white teeth 
like you would be smilin’ to show ’em, 
if fer nothin’ else.” 

“I wisht I was like you/’ said Lovey 
Mary. 

“ Don’t take it out in wishin’. If you 
want to be cheerful, jes set yer mind on 
it an’ do it. Can’t none of us help what 
traits we start out in life with, but we 
kin help what we end up with. When 
things first got to goin’ wrong with me, 
1 16 


Neighborly Advice 


I says: l O Lord, whatever comes, keep 
me from gittin' sour!* It was n't fer 
my own sake I ast it, — some people 
'pears to enjoy bein' low-sperrited, — 
it was fer the childern an' Mr. Wiggs. 
Since then I 've made it a practice to 
put all my worries down in the bottom 
of my heart, then set on the lid an' 
smile." 

u But you think ever'body 's nice and 
good," complained Lovey Mary. “ You 
never see all the meanness I do." 

u Don't I? I been watchin' old man 
Rothchild fer goin' on eleven year', try- 
in' to see some good in him, an' I never 
found it till the other day when I seen 
him puttin' a splint on Cusmoodle's 
broken leg. He 's the savagest man I 
know, yet he keered fer that duck as ten- 


Lovey Mary 


der as a woman* But it ain't jes seein' 
the good in folks an' sayin' nice things 
when you ’re feelin' good. The way 
to git cheerful is to smile when you 
feel bad, to think about somebody 
else's headache when yer own is 'most 
bustin', to keep on b'lievin' the sun 
is a-shinin' when the clouds is thick 
enough to cut. Nothin' helps you to it 
like thinkin' more 'bout other folks than 
'bout yerself." 

“I think 'bout Tommy first/' said 
Lovey Mary. 

“Yes, you certainly do yer part by 
him. If my childern wore stockin's an' 
got as many holes in 'em as he does, 
I 'd work buttonholes in 'em at the start 
fer the toes to come through. But even 
Tommy wants somethin' besides darns* 
1 18 


Neighborly Advice 


Why don't you let him go barefoot on 
Sundays, too, an' take the time you been 
mendin' fer him to play with him? I 
want to see them pretty smiles come 
back in yer face ag'in." 

In a subsequent conversation with 
Miss Hazy, Mrs. Wiggs took a more 
serious view of Lovey Mary's de- 
pression. 

“ She jes makes me wanter cry, she 's 
so subdued-like. I never see anybody 
change so in my life. It 'u'd jes be a 
relief to hear her sass some of us like 
she uster. She told me she never had 
nobody make over her like we all did, 
an' it sorter made her 'shamed. Law- 
see! if kindness is goin' to kill her, I 
think we 'd better fuss at her some." 

“' Pears to me like she 's got nervous 
1 19 


7 


Lovey Mary 


sensations / 1 said Miss Hazy; “she 
jumps up in her sleep, an’ talks 'bout 
folks an' things I never heared tell of.” 

“That 's exactly what ails her,” 
agreed Mrs. Wiggs: “it 's nerves, Miss 
Hazy. To my way of thinking nerves 
is worser than tumors an* cancers. 
Look at old Mrs. Schultz. She 's got 
the dropsy so bad you can r t tell whether 
she 's settin' down or standin' up, yet 
she ain't got a nerve in her body, an' has 
'most as good a time as other folks. We 
can't let Lovey Mary go on with these 
here nerves; no tellin' where they 'll 
land her at. If it was jes springtime, 
I 'd give her sulphur an' molasses an' 
jes a little cream of tartar; that, used 
along with egg-shell tea, is the outbeat- 
enest tonic I ever seen. But I never 
120 


Neighborly Advice 


would run ag'in' the seasons. Seems 
to me I 've heared yallerroot spoke of 
fer killin' nerves." 

“ 1 don't 'spect we could git no yaller- 
root round here." 

“ What 's the matter with Miss Viny ? 
I bet it grows in her garden thick as 
hairs on a dog's back. Let 's send 
Lovey Mary out there to git some, an' 
we '11 jes repeat the dose on her till it 
takes some hold." 

“ I ain't puttin' much stock in Miss 
Viny," demurred Miss Hazy. “ I 've 
heared she was a novelist reader, an' 
she ain't even a church-member." 

“An' do you set up to jedge her?" 
asked Mrs. Wiggs, in fine scorn. “ Miss 
Viny 's got more sense in her little fin- 
ger than me an' you has got in our 


Lovey Mary 


whole heads. She can doctor better with 
them yarbs of hers than any physician- 
ner I know. As to her not bein' a mem- 
ber, she lives right an r helps other folks, 
an' that 's more than lots of members 
does. Besides," she added conclusively, 
u Mr. Wiggs himself was n't no church- 
member." 


122 


CHAPTER VIII 


A DENOMINATIONAL GARDEN 


“ Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that lies 
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities ; 
For naught so vile that on the earth doth live 
But to the earth some special good doth give. ’ ’ 


HE following Sunday 
being decidedlycooler, 
Lovey Mary was start- 
ed off to Miss Viny’s 
in quest of yellowroot. 
She had protested that 
shewas not sick, but Miss Hazy, backed 
by Mrs. Wiggs, had insisted. 

u If you git down sick, it would be a r 
orful drain on me, M was Miss Hazy's 
123 



Lovey Mary 


final argument, and the point was ef- 
fective. 

As Lovey Mary trudged along the 
railroad tracks, she was unconscious of 
the pleasant changes of scenery. The 
cottages became less frequent, and the 
bare, dusty commons gave place to green 
fields. Here and there a tree spread its 
branches to the breezes, and now and 
then a snatch of bird song broke the 
stillness. But Lovey Mary kept gloom- 
ilyon her way, her eyes fixed on the cross- 
ties. The thoughts surging through her 
brain were dark enough to obscure even 
the sunshine. For three nights she 
had cried herself to sleep, and the “ ner- 
vous sensations” were getting worse 
instead of better. 

“Just two months since Kate was 
124 


/? c Denominational Garden 


hurt," she said to herself. “Soon as 
she gets out the hospital she ’ll be try- 
ing to find us again. I believe she was 
coming to the factory looking for me 
when she got run over. She ’d just like 
to take Tommy away and send me to 
jail. Oh, I hate her worse all the time ! 

I wisht she was — " 

The wish died on her lips, for she 
suddenly realized that it might already 
have been fulfilled. Some one coughed 
near by, and she started guiltily. 

“You seem to be in a right deep 
steddy," said a voice on the other side 
of the fence. 

Lovey Mary glanced up and saw a 
queer-looking old woman smiling at her 
quizzically. A pair of keen eyes twin- 
kled under bushy brows, and a fierce 
125 


Lovey Mary 


little beard bristled from her chin. When 
she smiled it made Lovey Mary think 
of a pebble dropped in a pool, for the 
wrinkles went rippling off from her 
mouth in ever-widening circles until they 
were lost in the gray hair under her 
broad-brimmed hat, 

“ Are you Miss Viny?" asked Lovey 
Mary, glancing at the old-fashioned 
flower-garden beyond, 

“Well, I been that fer sixty year'; 
I ain't heared of no change," answered 
the old lady, 

“Miss Hazy sent me after someyel- 
lowroot," said Lovey Mary, listlessly, 
“Who fer?" 

“Me," 

Miss Viny took a pair of large spec- 
tacles from her pocket, put them on the 
126 









A c Denominational Garden 


tip of her nose, and looked over them 
critically at Lovey Mary. 

“ Stick out yer tongue.” 

Lovey Mary obeyed. 

“Uh-huh. It ’s a good thing I 
looked. You don’t no more need yal- 
lerroot than a bumblebee. You come 
in here on the porch an’ tell me what ’s 
ailin’ you, an’ I ’ll do my own pre- 


scriptin’.” 

Lovey Mary followed her up the nar- 
row path, that ran between a mass of 
flowers. Snowy oleanders, yellow asters, 
and purple phlox crowded together in 
a space no larger than Miss Hazy’sfront 
yard. Lovey Mary forgot her troubles 
in sheer delight in seeing so many 
flowers together. 

“ Do you love ’em, too?” asked Miss 


129 


Lovey Mary 


Viny, jerking her thumb over her 
shoulder. 

“I guess I would if I had a chance. 
I never saw them growing out of doors 
like this. I always had to look at them 
through the store windows.” 

“Oh, law, don't talk to me 'bout 
caged-up flowers! I don't b'lieve in 
shuttin' a flower up in a greenhouse any 
more 'n I b'lieve in shuttin' myself up 
in one church.'' 

Lovey Mary remembered what Miss 
Hazy had told her of Miss Viny's perni- 
cious religious views, and she tried to 
change the subject. But Miss Viny was 
started upon a favorite theme and was 
not to be diverted. 

“This here is a denominational gar- 
den, an' I got every congregation I ever 
130 


/ 1 ( Denominational Garden 


heared of planted in it. I ain't got no 
faverite bed. I keer fer ’em all jes alike. 
When you come to think of it, the same 
rule holds good in startin' a garden as 
does in startin' a church. You first got 
to steddy what sort of soil you goin' 
to work with, then you have to sum up 
all the things you have to fight ag'inst. 
Next you choose what flowers are goin' 
to hold the best places. That 's a 
mighty important question in churches, 
too, ain't it? Then you go to plantin', 
the thicker the better, fer in both you 
got to allow fer a mighty failin' off. 
After that you must take good keer of 
what you got, an' be sure to plant some- 
thing new each year. Once in a while 
some of the old growths has to be 
thinned out, an' the new upstarts an' 

131 


Lovey Mary 


suckers has to be pulled up. Now, if 
you 'll come out here I 'll show you 
round," 

She started down the path, and Lovey 
Mary, somewhat overwhelmed by this 
oration, followed obediently, 

“ These here are the Baptists," said 
Miss Viny, waving her hand toward a 
bed of heliotrope and flags, “They 
want lots of water; like to be wet clean 
through. They sorter set off to they- 
selves an' tend to their own business; 
don't keer much 'bout minglin' with the 
other flowers." 

Lovey Mary did not understand very 
clearly what Miss Viny was talking 
about, but she was glad to follow her in 
the winding paths, where new beauties 
were waiting at every turn. 

132 


c Denominational Garden 


u These is geraniums, ain't they? 
One of the girls had one, once, in a 
flower-pot when she was sick." 

“Yes,” said Miss Viny; “they 're 
Methodist, They fall from grace an' 
has to be revived; they like lots of en- 
couragement in the way of sun an' 
water. These phlox are Methodist, too ; 
no set color, easy to grow, hardy an' 
vigorous. Pinchin' an' cuttin' back the 
shoots makes it flower all the better; 
needs new soil every few years: now 
ain't that Methodist down to the 
ground?” 

“Are there any Presbyterians?” 
asked Lovey Mary, beginning to grasp 
Miss Viny's meaning. 

“Yes, indeed; they are a good, old, 
reliable bed. Look at all these roses an' 
133 


Lovey Mary 


tiger-lilies an' dahlias; they all knew 
what they was goin' to be afore they 
started to grow. They was elected to 
it, an' they Ml keep on bein' what they 
started out to be clean to the very end.” 

“ I know about predestination,” cried 
Lovey Mary, eagerly. “ Miss Bell used 
to tell us all those things.” 

“Who did?” 

Lovey Mary flushed crimson. “A 
lady I used to know,” she said evasively. 

Miss Viny crossed the garden, and 
stopped before a bed of stately lilies and 
azaleas. “These are 'Piscopals,” she 
explained. “Ain't they tony? Jes look 
like they thought their bed was the only 
one in the garden. Somebody said that 
a lily did n't have no pore kin among 
the flowers. It ain't no wonder they 
134 


/I c Denominational Garden 


'most die of dignity. They 're like the 
'Piscopals in more ways 'n one; both 
hates to be disturbed, both likes some 
shade, an' " — confidentially — “both are 
pretty pernickity. But to tell you the 
truth, ain't nothin' kin touch 'em when 
it comes to beauty ! I think all the other 
beds is proud of 'em, if you 'd come to 
look into it. Why, look at weddin's an' 
funerals! Don't all the churches call 
in the 'Piscopals an' the lilies on both 
them occasions?" 

Lovey Mary nodded vaguely. 

“An' here," continued Miss Viny, 
“are the Unitarians. You may be 
s'prised at me fer havin' 'em in here, 
'long with the orthodox churches; but 
if the sun an' the rain don't make no 
distinction, I don't see what right I got 
135 


Lovey Mary 


to put ’em on the other side of the fence. 
These first is sweet-william, as rich in 
bloom as the Unitarian is in good works, 
a-sowin’ theyselves constant, an 1 every 
little plant a-puttin’ out a flower.” 

“Ain’t there any Catholics?” asked 
Lovey Mary. 

“ Don’t you see them hollyhawks an T 
snowballs an’ laylacs? All of them are 
Catholics, takin’ up lots of room an’ 
needin’ the prunin’-knife pretty often, 
but bringin’ cheer an’ brightness to the 
whole garden when it needs it most. 
Yes, I guess you’d have trouble thinkin’ 
of any sect I ain’t got planted. Them 
ferns over in the corner is Quakers. I 
ain’t never seen no Quakers, but they 
tell me that they don’t b’lieve in flow- 
erin’ out; that they like coolness an’ 
136 


c Denominational Garden 


shade an' quiet, an' are jes the same the 
year round. These colea plants are the 
apes; they are all things to all men, 
take on any color that 's round 'em, kin 
be the worst kind of Baptists or Presby- 
terians, but if left to theyselves they run 
back to good-fer-nothin's. This here 
everlastin' is one of these here Chris- 
tians that 's so busy thinkin' 'bout dyin' 
that he fergits to live." 

Miss Viny chuckled as she crumbled 
the dry flower in her fingers. 

“ See how different this is," she said, 
plucking a sprig of lemon-verbena. 
“This an' the mint an' the sage an' the 
lavender is all true Christians; jes by 
bein' touched they give out a' influence 
that makes the whole world a sweeter 
place to live in. But, after all, they 


Lovey Mary 


can*t all be alike! There *s all sorts of 
Christians: some stands fer sunshine, 
some fer shade; some fer beauty, some 
fer use; some up high, some down low. 
There *s jes one thing all the flowers 
has to unite in fightin* against — that *s 
the canker-worm, Hate. If it once gits 
in a plant, no matter how good an* 
strong that plant may be, it eats right 
down to its heart.” 

“ How do you get it out, MissViny?** 
asked Lovey Mary, earnestly. 

u Prayer an* perseverance. If the 
Christian *11 do his part, God *11 do hisn. 
You see, I *mtryin* to be to these flowers 
what God is to his churches. The sun, 
which answers to the Sperrit, has to 
shine on *em all, an* the rain, which an- 
swers to God*s mercy, has to fall on *em 
138 


J- 1 ( Denominational Garden 


all. I jes watch ’em, an' plan fer ’em, 
an' shelter 'em, an' love 'em, an' if they 
do their part they 're bound to grow. 
Now I 'm goin' to cut you a nice bo'quet 
to carry back to the Cabbage Patch." 

So engrossed were the two in select- 
ing and arranging the flowers that 
neither thought of the yellowroot or 
its substitute. Nevertheless, as Lovey 
Mary tramped briskly back over the 
railroad-ties with her burden of blos- 
soms, she bore a new thought in her 
heart which was destined to bring about 
a surer cure than any of Miss Viny's 
most efficient herbs. 


139 


CHAPTER IX 


LABOR DAY 


* And cloudy the day, or stormy the night, 

The sky of her heart was always bright 

iT would n't s'prise me 
none if we had cy- 
clones an' tornadoes 
by evenin', it looks so 
thundery outdoors/' 

It was inconsiderate 
of Miss Hazy to make the above obser- 
vation in the very face of the most elab- 
orate preparations for a picnic, but Miss 
Hazy's evil predictions were too fre- 
quent to be effective. 

140 



Labor ^Day 


11 1 r ll scurry round an T git another 
loaf of bread,” said Mrs. Wiggs, briskly, 
as she put a tin pail into the corner of 
the basket. u Lovey Mary, you put in 
the eggs an 1 git them cookies outen the 
stove. I promised them boys a picnic 
on Labor Day, an* we are goin T if it 
snows.” 

u Awful dangerous in the woodswhen 
it storms,” continued Miss Hazy. u l 
heared of a man oncet that would go to 
a picnic in the rain, an r he got struck 
so bad it burned his shoes plump off.” 

u Must have been the same man that 
got drownded, when he was little, fer 
goin f in swimmin' on Sunday,” an- 
swered Mrs. Wiggs, wiping her hands 
on her apron. 

“ Mebbe r t was,” said Miss Hazy. 

1 4 1 


Lovey Mary 


Lovey Mary vibrated between the 
door and the window, alternating be- 
tween hope and despair. She had set 
her heart on the picnic with the same 
intensity of desire that had character- 
ized her yearning for goodness and af- 
fection and curly hair. 

“ I believe there is a tiny speck more 
blue/' she said, scanning the heavens 
for the hundredth time. 

“ Course there is ! M cried Mrs. Wiggs, 
“an r even if there ain't, we 'll have the 
picnic anyway. I b'lieve in havin' a 
good time when you start out to have 
it. If you git knocked out of one plan, 
you want to git yerself another right 
quick, afore yer sperrits has a chance 
to fall. Here comes Jake an' Chris 
with their baskets. Suppose you rench 
142 


Labor <Day 


off yer bands an T go gether up the rest 
of the childern. I 'spect Billy 's done 
hitched up by this time,” 

At the last moment Miss Hazy was 
still trying to make up her mind 
whether or not she would go. “Them 
wheels don't look none too stiddy fer 
sich a big load/' she said cautiously. 

“ Them wheels is a heap sight stiddier 
than your legs/' declared Mrs. Wiggs. 
“An' there ain't a meeker hoss in Ken- 
tucky than Cuby. He looks like he 
might 'a' belonged to a preacher 'stid 
of bein' a broken-down engine-hoss." 

An unforeseen delay was occasioned 
by a heated controversy between Lovey 
Mary and Tommy concerning the ad- 
visability of taking Cusmoodle. 

“ There ain't more than room enough 

H3 


Lovey Mary 


to squeeze you in, Tommy/' she said, 
“let alone that fat old duck/' 

“'T ain't a fat old duck," 

“'T is, too! He sha'n't go. You'll 
have to stay at home yourself if you 
can't be good." 

“ I feel like I was doin' to det lim- 
ber," threatened Tommy. 

Mrs. Wiggs recognized a real danger. 
She also knew that discretion was the 
better part of valor. “ Here 's a nice 
little place up here by me, jes big 
enough fer you an' Cusmoodle. You 
kin set on the basket; it won't mash 
nothin'. If we 're packed in good an' 
tight, can't none of us fall out." 

When the last basket was stored 
away, the party started off in glee, leav- 
ing Miss Hazy still irresolute in the 
144 


Labor Day 


doorway, declaring that “she almost 
wisht she had V went.” 

The destination had not been de- 
cided upon, so it was discussed as the 
wagon jolted along over the cobble- 
stones. 

“Let 's go out past Miss Viny's,” 
suggested Jake; “there 's a bully woods 
out there.” 

“Aw, no! Let 's go to Tick Creek 
an 1 go in wadin'.” 

Mrs. Wiggs, seated high above the 
party and slapping the reins on Cuba's 
back, allowed the lively debate to con- 
tinue until trouble threatened, then she 
interfered : 

“ I think it would be nice to go over 
to the cemet'ry. We 'd have to cross 
the city, but when you git out there 
145 


Lovey Mary 


there 's plenty of grass an 1 trees, an' it 
runs right 'longside the river.” 

The proximity of the river decided 
the matter. 

“I won't hardly take a swim!” said 
Jake, going through the motions, to the 
discomfort of the two little girls who 
were hanging their feet from the back 
of the wagon. 

44 1 'm afraid it 's going to rain so 
hard that you can take your swim be- 
fore you get there,” said Lovey Mary, 
as the big drops began to fall. 

The picnic party huddled on the floor 
of the wagon in a state of great merri- 
ment, while Mrs. Wiggs spread an old 
quilt over as many of them as it would 
cover. 

41 f T ain't nothin' but a summer 
146 









Labor ©at/ 


shower,” she said, holding her head on 
one side to keep the rain from driving 
in her face. “ I 'spect the sun is shinin' 
at the cemet'ry right now.” 

As the rickety wagon, with its 
drenched and shivering load, rattled 
across Main street, an ominous sound 
fell upon the air: 

One — two — three ! One — two! 
Mrs. Wiggs wrapped the lines about 
her wrists and braced herself for the 
struggle. But Cuba had heard the sum- 
mons, his heart had responded to the 
old call, and with one joyous bound 
he started for the fire. 

u Hold on tight ! ” yelled Mrs. Wiggs. 
u Don't none of you fall out. Whoa, 
Cuby! Whoa! I 'll stop him in a 
minute. Hold tight!” 

149 


Lovey Mary 


Cuba kicked the stiffness out of his 
legs, and laying his ears back, raced 
valiantly for five squares neck and neck 
with the engine-horses. But the odds 
were against him; Mrs. Wiggs and 
Chris sawing on one line, and Billy and 
Jake pulling on the other, proved too 
heavy a handicap. Within sight of the 
fire he came to a sudden halt. 

“It 's the lumber-yards!” called 
Chris, climbing over the wheels. “ Looks 
like the whole town 's on fire.” 

“ Let 's unhitch Cuby an' tie him, 
an' stand in the wagon an' watch it,'' 
cried Mrs. Wiggs, in great excite- 
ment. 

The boys were not content to be sta- 
tionary, so they rushed away, leaving 
Mrs. Wiggs and the girls, with Tommy 
150 


Labor <Day 


and the duck, to view the conflagration 
at a safe distance* 

For two hours the fire raged, leaping 
from one stack of lumber to another, 
and threatening the adjacent buildings* 
Every fire-engine in the department was 
called out, the commons were blackwith 
people, and the excitement was intense. 

“Ain’t you glad we come?” cried 
Lovey Mary, dancing up and down in 
the wagon. 

“We never come* We was brought,” 
said Asia* 

Long before the fire was under con- 
trol the sun had come through the f 
clouds and was shining brightly* Pic- 
nics, however, were not to be consid- 
ered when an attraction like this was to 
be had. When the boys finally came 

151 


Lovey Mary 


strangling back the fire was nearly out, 
the crowd had dispersed, and only the 
picnic party was left on the commons. 

“ It 's too late to start to the ceme- 
tery, M said Mrs. Wiggs, thoughtfully. 
“What do you all think of havin' the 
picnic right here an' now?" 

The suggestion was regarded as 
nothing short of an inspiration. 

“The only trouble," continued Mrs. 
Wiggs, “is 'bout the water. Where we 
goin r to git any to drink? I know one 
of the firemen, Pete Jenkins; if I could 
see him I 'd ast him to pour us some 
outen the hose." 

“ Gimme the pail ; I 'll go after him," 
cried Jake. 

“ Naw, you don't; I 'm a-goin'. It 's 
my maw that knows him," said Billy. 

152 




9 














































\ 


















Labor <Day 


u That ain’t nothin’. My uncle knows 
the chief of police! Can’t I go, Mrs. 
Wiggs?” 

Meanwhile Chris had seized the hint 
and the bucket, and was off in search 
of Mr. Peter Jenkins, whose name 
would prove an open sesame to that 
small boy’s paradise — the engine side 
of the rope. 

The old quilt, still damp, was spread 
on the ground, and around it sat the 
picnic party, partaking ravenously of 
dry sandwiches and cheese and cheer. 
Such laughing and crowding and romp- 
ing as there was! Jake gave correct 
imitations of everybody in the Cabbage 
Patch, Chris did some marvelous stunts 
with his wooden leg, and Lovey Mary 
sang every funny song that she knew. 
155 


Lovey Mary 


Mrs. Wiggs stood in the wagon above 
them, and dispensed hospitality as long 
as it lasted. Cuba, hitched to a fence 
near by, needed no material nourish- 
ment. He was contentedly sniffing the 
smoke-filled air, and living over again 
the days of his youth. 

When the party reached home, tired 
and grimy, they were still enthusiastic 
over the fine time they had had. 

“ It T s jes the way I said,” proclaimed 
Mrs. Wiggs, as she drove up with a 
flourish ; “you never kin tell which way 
pleasure is a-comin\ Who ever would 
V thought, when we aimed at theceme- 
t'ry, that we *d land up at a first-class 
fire?” 


156 


CHAPTER X 

A TIMELY VISIT 


The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art. 
Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart . ’ ’ 



f EEKS and months 
slipped by, and 
the Cabbage 
Patch ate break- 
fast and supper 
by lamplight* 
Those who could afford it were laying 
in theirwinter coal, and those who could 
not were providently pasting brown 
paper over broken window-panes, and 
preparing to keep Jack Frost at bay as 
long as possible* 


157 



Lovey Mary 


One Saturday, as Lovey Mary came 
home from the factory, she saw a well- 
dressed figure disappearing in the 
distance. 

“Who is that lady?” she demanded 
suspiciously of Europena Wiggs, who 
was swinging violently on the gate. 

“'T ain't no lady,” said Europena. 
“ It 's my Sunday-school teacher.” 

“Mrs. Redding?” 

“ Uh-huh. She wants Asia to come 
over to her house this evenin'.” 

“Wisht I could go,” said Lovey 
Mary. 

“Why can't you?” asked Mrs. 
Wiggs, coming to the open door. “ Asia 
would jes love to show Mrs. Reddin' 
how stylish you look in that red dress. 
I '11 curl yer hair on the poker if you 
want me to.” 


158 



















































































« 






f 





• I 















A Timely Visit 


Any diversion from the routine of 
work was acceptable, so late that after- 
noon the two girls, arrayed in their 
best garments, started forth to call on 
the Reddings. 

“ I wisht I had some gloves,” said 
Lovey Mary, rubbing her blue fingers. 

“If I ’d V thought about it I ’d ’a’ 
made you some before we started. It 
don’t take no time.” Asia held out her 
hands, which were covered with warm 
red mitts. “ I make ’em outen Billy’s 
old socks after the feet r s wore off.” 

“ I don’t see how you know how to 
do so many things!” said Lovey Mary, 
admiringly. 

Ui T ain’t nothin’,” disclaimed Asia, 
modestly. “It ’s jes the way maw 
brought us up. Whenever we started 
1 6 1 


Lovey Mary 


out to do a thing she made us finish it 
someway or 'nother. Oncet when we 
was all little we lived in the country. 
She sent Billy out on the hoss to git two 
watermelon, an' told him fer him not 
to come home without 'em. When Billy 
got out to the field he found all the 
watermelon so big he could n't carry 
one, let alone two. What do you think 
he done?" 

“Come home without 'em?" 

“ No, sir, he never ! He jes set on the 
fence an' thought awhile, then he took 
offen his jeans pants an' put a water- 
melon in each leg an' hanged 'em 'crost 
old Rollie's back an' come ridin' home 
barelegged." 

“ I think he 's the nicest boy in the 
Cabbage Patch," said Lovey Mary, 
162 


y? Timely Visit 


laughing over the incident. “ He never 
does tease Tommy.” 

“That ’s ’cause he likes you. He 
says you ’ve got grit. He likes the way 
you cleaned up Miss Hazy an’ stood up 
to Mr. Stubbins.” 

A deeper color than even the fresh 
air warranted came into Lovey Mary’s 
cheeks, and she walked on for a few 
minutes in pleased silence. 

“ Don’t you want to wear my gloves 
awhile?” asked Asia. 

“ No; my hands ain’t cold anymore,” 
said Lovey Mary. 

As they turned into Terrace Park, 
with its beautiful grounds, its fountains 
and statuary, Asia stopped to explain. 

“Jes rich folks live over here. That 
there is the Reddin’s’ house, the big 
163 


Lovey Mary 


white one where them curbstone ladies 
are in the yard. I wisht you could git 
a peek in the parlor; they f ve got chairs 
made outer real gold, an* strandaliers 
that look like icicles all hitched to- 
gether.” 

“ Do they set on the gold chairs?” 
u No, indeed; the legs is too wabbly 
fer that. I reckon they r re jes to show 
how rich they are. This here is where 
the carriage drives in. Their hired 
man wears a high-style hat, an* a fur 
cape jes like Mrs. Reddin’s.” 

u I T spect they have turkey every day, 
don't they, Asia?” 

Before Asia's veracity was tested to 
the limit, the girls were startled by the 
sudden appearance of an excited house- 
maid at the side door. 

164 


A 1 Timely Visit 


u Simmons! Simmons !” she scream- 
ed. u Oh, where is that man? I ’ll have 
to go for somebody myself.” And with- 
out noticing the girls, she ran hastily 
down the driveway. 

Asia, whose calmness was seldom 
ruffled, led the way into the entry. 
“ That ’s the butter’s pantry,” she said, 
jerking her thumb over her shoulder. 

“ Don’t they keep nothing in it but 
butter?” gasped Lovey Mary. 

u Reckon not. They ’ve got a great 
big box jes fer ice; not another thing 
goes in it.” 

Another maid ran down the steps, 
calling Simmons. 

Asia, a frequent visitor at the house, 
made her way unconcernedly up to the 
nursery. On the second floor there was 
165 


Lovey Mary 


great confusion; the telephone was ring- 
ing, servants were hurrying to and fro. 

“ He’ll choke to death before the 
doctor gets here ! rt they heard the nurse 
say as she ran through the hall. From 
the open nursery door they could hear 
the painful gasps and coughs of a child 
in great distress. 

Asia paused on the landing, but Lovey 
Mary darted forward. The mother in- 
stinct, ever strong within her, had re- 
sponded instantly to the need of the 
child. In the long, dainty room full of 
beautiful things, she only saw the terri- 
fied baby on his mothers lap, his face 
purple, his eyes distended, as he fought 
for his breath. 

Without a word she sprang forward, 
and grasping the child by his feet, held 
166 






A Timely Visit 


him at arm’s-length and shook him vio- 
lently. Mrs. Redding screamed, and 
the nurse, who was rushing in with hot 
milk, dropped the cup in horror. But 
a tiny piece of hard candy lay on the 
floor, and Master Robert Redding was 
right side up again, sobbing himself 
quiet in Lovey Mary’s arms. 

After the excitement had subsided, 
and two doctors and Mr. Redding had 
arrived breathless upon the scene, Mrs. 
Redding, for the dozenth time, lavished 
her gratitude upon Lovey Mary: 

“ And to think you saved my precious 
baby ! The doctor said it was the only 
thing that could have saved him, yet we 
four helpless women had no idea what 
to do. How did you know, dear? Where 
did vou ever see it done?” 

169 


Lovey Mary 


Lovey Mary, greatly abashed, faced 
the radiant parents, the two portly doc- 
tors, and the servants in the background. 

“I learned on Tommy, rr she said in 
a low voice. “ He swallered a penny 
once that we was going to buy candy 
with. I did n't have another, so I had 
to shake it out.” 

During the laugh that followed, she 
and Asia escaped, but not before Mr. 
Redding had slipped a bill into her 
hand, and the beautiful Mrs. Redding 
had actually given her a kiss! 


170 


CHAPTER XI 

THE CHRISTMAS PLAY 


“ Not failure, but low aim, is crime." 

S the holiday season 
approached, a rumor 
began to be circulat- 
ed that the Cabbage 
Patch Sunday-school 
would have an enter- 
tainment as well as a Christmas tree. 
The instigator of this new movement 
was Jake Schultz, whose histrionic am- 
bition had been fired during his appren- 
ticeship as “super” at the opera-house. 

“ I know a man what rents costumes, 
1 7 1 



Lovey Mary 


an r the prompt-books to go with ’em/’ 
he said to several of the boys one Sun- 
day afternoon. “ If we all chip in we 
kin raise the price, an 1 git it back easy 
by chargin' admittance / 1 

“Aw, shucks!" said Chris. “We 
don't know nothin' 'bout play-actin'." 

“We kin learn all right," said Billy 
Wiggs. “ I bid to be the feller that acts 
on the trapeze." 

The other boys approving of the plan, 
it was agreed that Jake should call on 
the costumer at his earliest convenience. 

One night a week later Lovey Mary 
was getting supper when she heard an 
imperative rap on the door. It was Jake 
Schultz. He mysteriously beckoned 
her out on the steps, and closed the 
door behind them. 

172 








The Christmas T^lay 


“Have you ever acted any?” he 
asked. 

“ I used to say pieces at the home,” 
said Lovey Mary, forgetting herself. 

“Well, do you think you could take 
leadin' lady in the entertainment?” 

Lovey Mary had no idea what the 
lady was expected to lead, but she knew 
that she was being honored, and she 
was thrilled at the prospect. 

“ I know some arm-exercises, and I 
could sing for them,” she offered. 

“Oh, no,” explained Jake; “it r s a 
play, a reg'lar theayter play. I got the 
book an' the costumes down on Market 
street. The man did n r t have but this 
one set of costumes on hand, so I did n T t 
have no choice. It r s a bully play, all 
right, though ! I seen it oncet, an* I 
175 


Lovey Mary 


know how it all ought to go. It's named 
1 Forst,’ er somethin’ like that, I ’m 
goin’ to be the devil, an’ wear a red 
suit, an’ have my face all streaked up, 
Billy he ’s goin’ to be the other feller 
what ’s stuck on the girl. He tole me 
to ast you to be her. Your dress is white 
with cords an’ tassels on it, an’ the 
sleeves ain’t sewed up. Reckon you 
could learn the part? We ain’t goin’ to 
give it all,” 

“ I can learn anything! ” cried Lovey 
Mary, recklessly, “ Already know the 
alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer back- 
ward. Is the dress short-sleeve? And 
does it drag in the back when you 
walk?” 

“ Yep,” said Jake, “an’ the man said 
you was to plait your hair in two parts 
176 


The Christmas T^lay 


an' let 'em hang over yer shoulders. 
I don T t see why it would n't be pretty 
fer you to sing somethin', too. Ever'- 
body is so stuck on yer singin'." 

“ All right/' said Lovey Mary, enthu- 
siastically; “you bring the book over 
and show me where my part 's at. And, 
Jake," she called as he started off, “you 
tell Billy I '11 be glad to." 

For the next ten days Lovey Mary 
dwelt in Elysium. The prompt-book, 
the rehearsals, the consultations, filled 
the spare moments and threw a glamour 
over the busy ones. Jake, with his vast 
experience and unlimited knowledge of 
stage-craft, appealed to her in every- 
thing. He sat on a barrel and told 
how they did things “up to the opery- 
house," and Lovey Mary, seizing his 
177 


Lovey Mary 


suggestions with burning zeal, refitted 
the costumes, constructed scenery, h am- 
mered her own nails as well as the iron 
ones, and finally succeeded in putting 
into practice his rather vague theories. 
For the first time in her life she was a 
person of importance. 

Besides her numerous other duties 
she prepared an elaborate costume for 
Tommy. This had caused her some 
trouble, for Miss Hazy, who was sent 
to buy the goods for the trousers, ex- 
ercised unwise economy in buying two 
remnants which did not match in color 
or pattern. 

u Why did n't you put your mind on 
it, Miss Hazy?” asked Lovey Mary, 
making a heroic effort to keep her tem- 
per. u You might have known I could n't 
178 




The Christmas T^lay 


take Tommy to the show with one blue 
leg and one brown one. What must I 
do?” 

Miss Hazy sat dejectedly in the cor- 
ner, wiping her eyes on her apron. “ You 
might go ast Mis' Wiggs,” she sug- 
gested as a forlorn hope. 

When Mrs. Wiggs was told the 
trouble she smiled reassuringly. Emer- 
gencies were to her the spice of life; 
they furnished opportunities for the ex- 
pression of her genius. 

“ Hush cryin', Miss Hazy ; thereain't 
a speck of harm did. Mary kin make the 
front outen one piece an' the back outen 
the other. Nobody won't never know 
the difference, 'cause Tommy can T t be 
goin' an' cornin' at the same time.” 

The result was highly satisfactory, 


Lovey Mary 


that is, to everybody but Tommy. He 
complained that there u was n't no room 
to set down." 

On Christmas night the aristocracy 
of the Cabbage Patch assembled in the 
school-house to enjoy the double attrac- 
tion of a Christmas tree and an enter- 
tainment. Mr. Rothchild, who had ar- 
ranged the tree for the last ten years, 
refused to have it moved from its ac- 
customed place, which was almost in 
the center of the platform. Hehad been 
earnestly remonstrated with, but he and 
the tree remained firm. Mrs. Rothchild 
and all the little Rothchildren had 
climbed in by the window before the 
doors were open in order to secure the 
front seats. Immediately behind them 
sat the Hazys and the Wiggses. 

182 


The Christmas *Play 


“That there is the seminary student 
gittin' up now/’ whispered Mrs. Wiggs. 
“ He r s goin r to call out the pieces. My 
land ! ain't he washed out? Looks like 
he r d go into a trance fer fifty cents. 
Hush, Australia! don't you see he is 
goin' to pray?” 

After the opening prayer, the young 
preacher suggested that, as long as the 
speakers were not quite ready, the audi- 
ence should “raise a hymn.” 

“He r s got a fine voice,” whispered 
Miss Hazy; “I heared ’em say he was 
the gentleman soprano at a down-town 
church.” 

When the religious exercises were 
completed, the audience settled into a 
state of pleasurable anticipation. 

“The first feature of the entertain- 
183 


Lovey Mary 


ment,” announced the preacher, “will 
be a song by Miss Europena Wiggs.” 

Europena stepped forward and, with 
hands close to her sides and anguished 
eyes on the ceiling, gasped forth the 
agonized query: 

“Can she make a cheery-pie, 

Billy boy, Billy boy? 

Can she make a cheery-pie, 

Charming Billy l 11 

Notwithstanding the fact that there 
were eight verses, an encore was de- 
manded. Mrs. Wiggs rose in her seat 
and beckoned vehemently to Europena. 
“Come on back!” she motioned vio- 
lently with her lips. “They want you 
to come back.” 

Europena, in a state of utter bewil- 
derment, returned to the stage. 

184 









The Christmas T^lay 


“Say another speech ! ” whispered 
Mrs. Wiggs, leaning over so far that she 
knocked Mrs. Rothchild's bonnet awry. 
Still Europena stood there, an evident 
victim of lockjaw. 

“'I have a little finger/” prompted 
her mother frantically from the second 
row front. 

A single ray of intelligence flickered 
for a moment over the child's face, and 
with a supreme effort she said: 

u I have a little finger, 

An r I have a little beau ; 

When I get a little bigger 
I ’ll have a little toe.” 

“Well, she got it all in,” said Mrs. 
Wiggs, in a relieved tone, as Europena 
was lifted down. 

After this, other little girls came for- 
187 


Lovey Mary 


ward and made some unintelligible re- 
marks concerning Santa Claus. It was 
with some difficulty that they went 
through their parts, for Mr. Rothchild 
kept getting in the way as he calmly and 
uncompromisingly continued to hang 
cornucopias on the tree. Songs and 
recitations followed, but even the young- 
est spectator realized that these were 
only preliminary skirmishes. 

At last a bell rang. Two bedspreads 
which served as curtains were majesti- 
cally withdrawn. A sigh of admiration 
swept the room. “Ain't he cute!” 
whispered a girl in the rear, as Billy 
rose resplendent in pink tights and 
crimson doublet, and folding his arms 
high on his breast, recited in a deep 
voice: 


188 


The Christmas T^lay 


11 1 have, alas! philosophy, 

Medicine, jurisprudence too, 

And, to my cost, theology 

With ardent labor studied through/’ 

“ I don't see no sense in what he 's 
sayin' at all,” whispered Miss Hazy* 
u It 's jes what was in the book,” an- 
swered Mrs, Wiggs, “'cause I heared 
him repeat it off before supper,” 

The entrance of Jake awakened the 
flagging interest. Nobody understood 
what he said either, but he made hor- 
rible faces, and waved his red arms, and 
caused a pleasant diversion, 

“ Maw, what r s John Bagby a-handin' 
round in that little saucer?” asked Aus- 
tralia, 

“ Fer the mercy sake ! I don't know,” 
answered her mother, craning her neck 
to see. 


189 


Lovey Mary 


John, with creaking footsteps, tiptoed 
to the front of the stage, and stooping 
down, began to mix a concoction in a 
plate. Many stood up to see what he 
was doing, and conjecture was rife. 
Mephisto and Faust were forgotten un- 
til Jake struck a heroic pose, and grasp- 
ing Billyhs arm, said hoarsely: 

“Gaze, Faustis,gaze intopairdition !” 

John put a match to the powder, a 
bright red light filled the room, and the 
audience, following the index-finger of 
the impassioned Mephisto , gazed into 
the placid, stupid faces of four meek 
little boys on the mourners 1 bench. 

Before the violent coughing caused 
by the calcium fumes had ceased, a vi- 
sion in white squeezed past Mr. Roth- 
child and came slowly down to the edge 
190 


'•■W/t' (T "A .t 







The Christmas c P/at/ 


of the platform. It was Lovey Mary as 
Marguerite. Her long dress swept about 
her feet, her heavy hair hung in thick 
braids over both shoulders, and a burn- 
ing red spot glowed on each cheek. For 
a moment she stood as Jake had di- 
rected, with head thrown back and eyes 
cast heavenward, then she began to 
recite. The words poured from her lips 
with a volubility that would have shamed 
an auctioneer. It was a long part, full 
of hard words, but she knew it perfectly 
and was determined to show how fast 
she could say it without making a mis- 
take. It was only when she finished that 
shepausedfor breath. Then sheturned 
slowly, and stretching forth appealing 
arms to Faust , sang in a high, sweet 
voice, “I Need Thee Every Hour.” 
193 


Lovey Mary 


The effect was electrical. At last the 
Cabbage Patch understood what was 
going on. The roof rang with applause. 
Even Mr. Rothchild held aside his 
strings of pop-corn to let Marguerite 
pass out. 

“S' more! S' more!” was the cry. 
“ Sing it ag'in ! ” 

Jake stepped before the curtain. “ If 
our friends is willing” he said, “we 'll 
repeat over the last ak.'' 

Again Lovey Mary scored a triumph. 
John Bagby burned the rest of the cal- 
cium powder during the last verse, and 
the entertainment concluded in a pro- 
longed cheer. 


194 


CHAPTER XII 
REACTION 

“ Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.” 

HEN the paint and 
powder had been 
washed off, and 
T ommy had with 
difficulty been 
extracted from 
his new trousers and put to bed, Lovey 
Mary sat before the little stove and 
thought it all over. It had been the 
very happiest time of her whole life. 
How nice it was to be praised and made 
much of! Mrs. Wiggs had started it 
195 




Lovey Mary 


by calling everybody r s attention to her 
good points; then Mrs. Redding had 
sought her out and shown her continued 
attention; to-night was the great climax. 
Her name had been on every tongue, 
her praises sung on every side, and Billy 
Wiggs had given her everything he got 
off the Christmas tree. 

11 1 wisht I deserved it all,” she said, 
as she got up to pull the blanket closer 
about Tommy. “ I r ve tried to be good. 
I guess I am better in some ways, but 
not in all — not in all.” She knelt by 
the bed and held Tommy's hand to her 
cheek. u Sometimes he looks like Kate 
when he’s asleep like this. I wonder 
if she ’s got well? I wonder if she ever 
misses him?” 

For a long time she knelt there, hold- 
196 


Reaction 


ing the warm little hand in hers. The 
play, the success, the applause, were all 
forgotten, and in their place was a shame, 
a humiliation, that brought the hot tears 
to her eyes. 

u I ain’t what they think I am,” she 
whispered brokenly. “ I r m a mean, bad 
girl after all. The canker-worm ’sthere. 
Miss Viny said there never would be a 
sure-’nough beautiful flower till the 
canker-worm was killed. But I want to 
be good; I want to be what they think 
I am!” 

Again and again the old thoughts of 
Kate rose to taunt and madden her. But 
a new power was at work; it brought 
new thoughts of Kate, of Kate sick and 
helpless, of Kate without friends and 
lonely, calling for her baby. Through 
197 


Lovey Mary 


the night the battle raged within hen 
When the first gray streaks showed 
through the shutters, Lovey Mary 
cleaned her roomand put on her Sunday 
dress. “ I *11 be a little late to the fac- 
tory/* she explained to Miss Hazy at 
breakfast, “for I *ve got to go on an 
errand.** 

It was an early hour for visitors at 
the city hospital, but when Lovey Mary 
stated her business she was shown to 
Kate*s ward. At the far end of the long 
room, with her bandaged head turned 
to the wall, lay Kate. When the nurse 
spoke to her she turned her head pain- 
fully, and looked at them listlessly with 
great black eyes that stared forth from 
a face wasted and wan from suffering. 

“Kate!** said Lovey Mary, leaning 
198 


Reaction 


across the bed and touching her hand. 
“Kate, don r t you know me?” 

The pale lips tightened over the 
prominent white teeth. “Well, I swan, 
Lovey Mary, where ’d you come from ? ” 
N ot waiting for an answer, she continued 
querulously: “Say, can’t you get me 
out of this hole someway? But even if 
I had the strength to crawl, I would n’t 
have no place to go. Can’t you take me 
away? Anywhere would do.” 

Lovey Mary’s spirits fell; she had 
nerved herself for a great sacrifice, had 
decided to do her duty at any cost; but 
thinking of it beforehand in her little 
garret room, with Tommy’s hand in 
hers, and Kate Rider a mere abstrac- 
tion, was very different from facing the 
real issue, with the old, selfish, heart- 
199 


Lovey Mary 


less Kate in flesh and blood before her. 
She let go of Kate's hand. 

“ Don't you want to know about 
Tommy?" she asked. “I 've come to 
say I was sorry I run off with him." 

“ It was mighty nervy in you. I 
knew you 'd take good care of him, 
though. But say! you can get me away 
from this, can't you? I ain't got a 
friend in the world nor a cent of money. 
But I ain't going to stay here, where 
there ain't nothing to do, and I get so 
lonesome I 'most die. I 'd rather set 
on a street corner and run a hand-organ. 
Where are you and Tommy at?" 

u We are in the Cabbage Patch," said 
Lovey Mary, with the old repulsion 
strong upon her. 

“Where?" 


200 
















































* 













V 

































t 




Reaction 


“ The Cabbage Patch* It ain't your 
sort of a place, Kate* The folks are 
good and honest, but they are poor and 
plain* You 'd laugh at 'em." 

Kate turned her eyes to the window 
and was silent a moment before she said 
slowly : 

“ I ain't got much right to laugh at 
nobody. I 'd be sorter glad to get with 
good people again* The other sort 's 
all right when you 're out for fun, but 
when you 're down on your luck they 
ain't there*" 

Lovey Mary, perplexed and troubled, 
looked at her gravely* 

“Have n't you got any place you 
could go to?" 

Kate shook her head* “Nobody 
would be willing to look after me and 

203 


ii 


Lovey Mary 


nurse me. Lovey/' — she stretched her 
thin hand across to her entreatingly, — 
“take me home with you! I heard the 
doctor tell the nurse he could n't do 
nothing more for me. I can't die here 
shut up with all these sick people. Take 
me wherever you are at. I '11 try not 
to be no trouble, and — I want to keep 
straight." 

Tears were in her eyes, and her lips 
trembled. There was a queer little 
spasm at Lovey Mary's heart. The 
canker-worm was dead. 

When a carriage drove up to Miss 
Hazy's door and the driver carried in 
a pale girl with a bandaged head, it 
caused untold commotion. 

“ Do you s'pose Mary 's a-bringin' 
home a smallpox patient?" asked Miss 
204 


Reaction 


Hazy, who was ever prone to look upon 
the tragic side. 

“Naw!” said Chris, who was peep- 
ing under the window-curtain ; 44 it looks 
more like she *s busted her crust.” 

In less than an hour every neighbor 
had been in to find out what was going 
on. Mrs. Wiggs constituted herself mis- 
tress of ceremonies. She had heard 
the whole story from the overburdened 
Mary, and was now prepared to direct 
public opinion in the way it should go. 
' “Jes another boarder fer Miss 
Hazy,” she explained airily to Mrs. 
Eichorn. 44 Lovey Mary was so well 
pleased with her boardinghouse, she 
drummed it up among her friends. This 
here lady has been at the hospittal. She 
got knocked over by a wagon out there 
205 


Lovey Mary 


near the factory, an’ it run into cele- 
brated concussion* The nurse tole 
Lovey Mary this mornin’ it was some- 
thin’ like information of the brain. 
What we ’re all goin’ to do is to try 
to git her well. I ’m a-goin’ home now 
to git her a nice dinner, an’ I jes bet 
some of you ’ll see to it that she gits a 
good supper. You kin jes bank on us 
knowin’ how to give a stranger a wel- 
come!” 

It was easy to establish a precedent 
in the Cabbage Patch. When a certain 
course of action was once understood 
to be the proper thing, every resident 
promptly fell in line. The victim of 
u celebrated concussion” was over- 
whelmed with attention. She lay in a 
pink wrapper in Miss Hazy’s kitchen, 
206 


Reaction 


and received the homage of the neigh- 
borhood. Meanwhile Lovey Mary 
worked extra hours at the factory and 
did sewing at night to pay for Kate's 
board. 

In spite, however, of the kind treat- 
ment and the regular administration of 
Miss Viny's herbs and Mrs. Wiggs's 
yellowroot, Kate grew weaker day by 
day. One stormy night when Lovey 
Mary came home from the factory she 
found her burning with fever and talk- 
ing excitedly. Miss Hazy had gotten 
her up-stairs, and now stood helplessly 
wringing her hands in the doorway. 

u Lor r , Lovey Mary ! she 's cuttin' up 
scandalous," complained the old lady. 
“I done ever'thing I knowed how; I 
ironed the sheets to make 'em warm, 
207 


Lovey Mary 


an' I tried my best to git her to swallow 
a mustard cocktail. I wanted her to 
lemme put a fly-blister on to her head, 
too, but she won't do nothin'.” 

“All right. Miss Hazy,” said Lovey 
Mary, hanging her dripping coat on a 
nail. “ I '11 stay with her now. Don't 
talk, Kate! Try to be still.” 

“ But I can't, Lovey. I 'm going to 
die, and I ain't fit to die. I 've been so 
bad and wicked, I 'm 'fraid to go, Lovey. 
What '11 I do? What '11 I do?” 

In vain the girl tried to soothe her. 
Her hysteria increased; she cried and 
raved and threw herself from side to 
side. 

“Kate! Kate! "pleaded Lovey Mary, 
trying to hold her arms, “don't cry so. 
God '11 forgive you. He will, if you 
are sorry.” 


208 


Reaction 


u But I r m afraid,” shuddered Kate. 
“I T ve been so bad. Heaven knows 
I r m sorry, but it r s too late ! T oo late ! ” 
Another paroxysm seized her, and her 
cries burst forth afresh. 

Mary, in desperation, rushed from 
the room. u Tommy!” she called softly 
down the steps. 

The small boy was sitting on the 
stairs, in round-eyed wonder at what 
was going on. 

“ Tommy,” said Lovey Mary, pick- 
ing him up, u the sick lady feels so bad! 
Go in and give her a love, darling. Pet 
her cheeks and hug her like you do me. 
Tell her she r s a pretty mama. T ell her 
you love her.” 

Tommy trotted obediently into the 
low room and climbed on the bed. He 
put his plump cheek against the thin 
209 


Lovey Mary 


one, and whispered words of baby-love. 
Kate's muscles relaxed as her arms 
folded about him. Gradually her sobs 
ceased and her pulse grew faint and 
fainter. Outside, the rain and sleet beat 
on the cracked window-pane, but a peace 
had entered the dingy little room. Kate 
received the great summons with a 
smile, for in one fleeting moment she 
had felt for the first and last time the 
blessed sanctity of motherhood. 


210 


CHAPTER XIII 

AN HONORABLE RETREAT 

“ For I will ease my heart 
Although it be with hazard 
Of my head." 

ISS BELL sat in her 
neat little office, with 
the evening paper in 
her hand. The hour 
before tea was the 
one time of the day 
she reserved for herself. Susie Smithers 
declared that she sat before the fire at 
such times and took naps, but Susie's 
knowledge was not always trustworthy 
21 1 



Lovey Mary 


— it depended entirely on the position 
of the keyhole. 

At any rate, Miss Bell was not sleep- 
ing to-night; she moved about restlessly, 
brushing imaginary ashes from the spot- 
less hearth, staring absently into the 
fire, then recurring again and again to 
an item in the paper which she held: 

DIED. Kate Rider, in her twenty-fourth year, 
from injuries received in an accident. 

Miss Bell seemed to cringe before 
the words. Her face looked old and 
drawn. u And to think I kept her from 
having her child ! ff she said to herself 
as she paced up and down the narrow 
room. “ No matter what else Kate was, 
she was his mother and had the first 
right to him. But I acted for the best; 

212 







An Honorable Retreat 


I could see no other way. If I had only 
known !” 

There were steps on the pavement 
without; she went to the window, and 
shading her eyes with her hands, gazed 
into the gathering dusk. Some one was 
coming up the walk, some one very 
short and fat. No; it was a girl carry- 
ing a child. Miss Bell reached the door 
just in time to catch Tommy in her arms 
as Lovey Mary staggered into the hall. 
They were covered with sleet and al- 
most numb from the cold. 

“ Kate ’s dead !” cried Lovey Mary, 
as Miss Bell hurried them into the 
office. “ I did n’t know she was going 
to die. Oh, I ’ve been so wicked to you 
and to Kate and to God! I want to be 
arrested! I don’t care what they do 
to me.” 


215 


Lovey Mary 


She threw herself on the floor, and 
beat her fists on the carpet. Tommy 
stood near and wept in sympathy; he 
wore his remnant trousers, and his little 
straw hat, round which Mrs. Wiggs had 
sewn a broad band of black. 

Miss Bell hovered over Lovey Mary 
and patted her nervously on the back. 
“ Don't, my dear, don't cry so. It 's 
very sad — dear me, yes, very sad. Y ou 
are n't alone to blame, though ; I have 
been at fault, too. I — I — feel dread- 
fully about it." 

Miss Bell's face was undergoing such 
painful contortions that Lovey Mary 
stopped crying in alarm, and Tommy 
got behind a chair. 

“Of course," continued Miss Bell, 
gaining control of herself, “it was very 
216 


An Honorable Retreat 


wrong of you to run away, Mary. When 
I discovered that you had gone I never 
stopped until I found you.” 

“ Till you found me?” gasped Lovey 
Mary. 

“ Yes, child; I knew where you were 
all the time.” 

Again Miss Bell's features were con- 
vulsed, and Mary and Tommy looked 
on in awed silence. “You see,” she 
went on presently, “ I am just as much 
at fault as you. I was worried and dis- 
tressed over having to let Tommy go 
with Kate, yet there seemed no way out 
of it. When I found you had hidden 
him away in a safe place, that you were 
both well and happy, I determined to 
keep your secret. But oh, Mary, we 
had n't the right to keep him from her! 

217 


Lovey Mary 


Perhaps the child would have been her 
salvation; perhaps she would have died 
a good girl.” 

“ But she did, Miss Bell,” said Lovey 
Mary, earnestly. “She said she was 
sorry again and again, and when she 
went to sleep Tommy’s arms was round 
her neck.” 

“Mary!” cried Miss Bell, seizing 
the girl’s hand eagerly, “did you find 
her and take him to her?” 

“ No, ma’am. I brought her to him. 
She did n’t have no place to go, and I 
wanted to make up to her for hating her 
so. I did ever’thing I could to make her 
well. We all did. I never thought she 
was going to die.” 

Then, at Miss Bell’s request, Lovey 
Mary told her story, with many sobs 
218 


An Honorable Retreat 


and tears, but some smiles in between, 
over the good times in the Cabbage 
Patch; and when she had finished, 
Miss Bell led her over to the sofa and 
put her arms about hen They had lived 
under the same roof for fifteen years, 
and she had never before given her a 
caress. 

“ Mary,” she said, u you did for Kate 
what nobody else could have done. I 
thank God that it all happened as it did.” 

11 But you 'd orter scold me and pun- 
ish me,” said Lovey Mary. “I 'd feel 
better if you did.” 

Tommy, realizing in some vague way 
that a love-feast was in progress, and 
always ready to echo Lovey Mary's 
sentiments, laid his chubby hand on 
Miss Bell's knee. 

219 


Lovey Mary 


“ When my little sled drows up I r m 
doin' to take you riding” he said con- 
fidingly. 

Miss Bell laughed a hearty laugh, for 
the first time in many months. The 
knotty problem which had caused her 
many sleepless nights had at last found 
its own solution. 


220 


CHAPTER XIV 

THE CACTUS BLOOMS 


ltell thee love is nature's second sun . 

Causing a spring of virtues where he shines." 



}T was June again, and 
once more Lovey M ary 
stood at an up-stairs 
window at the home. 
On the ledge grew a 
row of bright flowers, 
brought from Miss Viny’s garden, but 
they were no brighter than the face 
that smiled across them at the small 
boy in the playground below. Lovey 
Mary’s sleeves were rolled above her 
221 


12 


Lovey Mary 


elbows, and a dust-cloth was tied about 
her head. As she returned to her 
sweeping she sang joyfully, contentedly : 

“Can she sweep a kitchen floor, 

Billy boy, Billy boy? 

Can she sweep a kitchen floor, 
Charming Billy ? 11 

11 Miss Bell says for you to come 
down to the office,” announced a little 
girl, coming up the steps. “ There 's a 
lady there and a baby.” 

Lovey Mary paused in her work, and 
a shadow passed over her face. Just 
three years ago the same summons had 
come, and with it such heartaches and 
anxiety. She pulled down her sleeves 
and went thoughtfully down the steps. 
At the office door she found Mrs. Red- 
ding talking to Miss Bell. 

222 


The Cactus Blooms 


11 We leave Saturday afternoon/' she 
was saying. u It 's rather sooner than 
we expected, but we want to get the 
baby to Canada before the hot weather 
overtakes us. Last summer I asked two 
children from the Toronto home to 
spend two weeks with me at our summer 
place, but this year I have set my heart 
on taking Lovey Mary and Tommy. 
They will see Niagara Falls and Buf- 
falo, where we stop over a day, besides 
the little outing at the lake. Will you 
come, Mary? You know Robert might 
get choked again!" 

Lovey Mary leaned against the door 
for support. A half-hour visit to Mrs. 
Redding was excitement for a week, 
and only to think of going away with 
her, and riding on a steam-car, and 
223 


Lovey Mary 


seeing a lake, and taking Tommy, and 
being ever so small a part of that gor- 
geous Redding household! She could 
not speak; she just looked up and 
smiled, but the smile seemed to mean 
more than words, for it brought the 
sudden tears to Mrs. Redding's eyes. 
She gave Mary's hand a quick, under- 
standing little squeeze, then hurried 
out to her carriage. 

That very afternoon Lovey Mary 
went to the Cabbage Patch. As she hur- 
ried along over the familiar ground, she 
felt as if she must sing aloud the happy 
song that was humming in her heart. 
She wanted to stop at each cottage and 
tell the good news; but her time was 
limited, so she kept on her way to Miss 
Hazy's, merely calling out a greeting 
as she passed. When she reached the 
224 


The Cactus Ttlooms 


door she heard Mrs. Wiggs's voice in 
animated conversation. 

“Well, I wish you 'd look! There 
she is, this very minute! I never was 
so glad to see anybody in my life ! My 
goodness, child, you don't know how 
we miss you down here ! We talk Tout 
you all the time, jes like a person puts 
their tongue in the empty place after a 
tooth 's done pulled out.” 

11 1 'm awful glad to be back,” said 
Lovey Mary, too happy to be cast down 
by the reversion to the original state 
of the Hazy household. 

“ Me an' Chris ain't had a comfort- 
able day sence you left,” complained 
Miss Hazy. “ I 'd 'a' almost rather you 
would n't 'a' came than to have went 
away ag'in.” 

“ But listen ! ” cried Lovey Mary, un- 
225 


Lovey Mary 


able to keep her news another minute. 
“ I 'm a-going on a railroad trip with 
Mrs. Redding, and she 's going to take 
Tommy, too, and we are going to see 
Niag r ra and a lake and a buffalo !" 

u Ain't that the grandest thing fer her 
to go an' do!" exclaimed Mrs. Wiggs. 
“I told you she was a' angel!" 

“ I 'm right skeered of these here long 
trips," said Miss Hazy, “so many ac- 
cidents these days." 

“ My sakes ! " answered Mrs. Wiggs, 
“ I 'd think you 'd be 'fraid to step over 
a crack in the floor fer fear you 'd fall 
through. Why, Lovey Mary, it 's the 
nicest thing I ever heared tell of! An' 
Niag'ry Fall, too. I went on a trip once 
when I was little. Maw took me through 
the mountains. I never had seen moun- 
226 


The Cactus blooms 


tains before, an' I cried at first an' 
begged her to make 'em sit down, A trip 
is somethin' you never will fergit in all 
yer life. It was jes like Mrs. Reddin' 
to think about it; but I don't wonder 
she feels good to you. Asia says she 
never expects to see anything like the 
way you shook that candy outen little 
Robert. But see here, if you go 'way off 
there you must n't fergit us." 

11 1 never could forget you all, wher- 
ever I went," said Lovey Mary. 11 1 
was awful mean when I come to the 
Cabbage Patch; somehow you all just 
bluffed me into being better. I was n't 
used to being bragged on, and it made 
me want to be good more than anything 
in the world." 

u That's so," said Mrs. Wiggs. “ You 
227 


Lovey Mary 


can coax a' elephant with a little sugar. 
The worser Mr. Wiggs used to act, the 
harder I *d pat him on the back. When 
he *dgit bilin* mad, I *d say: 1 Now, Mr. 
Wiggs, why don*t you go right out in 
the woodshed an* swear off that cuss? 
I hate to think of it rampantin* round 
inside of a good-lookin* man like you/ 
He *d often take my advice, an* it al- 
ways done him good an* never hurt the 
woodshed. As fer the childern, I always 
did use compelments on them *stid of 
switches.** 

Lovey Mary untied the bundle which 
she carried, and spread the contents on 
the kitchen table. “ I *ve been saving 
up to get you all some presents,** she 
said. “ I wanted to get something for 
every one that had been good to me, but 
228 


The Cactus Tilooms 


that took in the whole Patch ! These 
are some new kind of seed for Miss 
Viny; she learned me a lot out of her 
garden* This is goods for a waist for 
you, Miss Hazy.” 

“It ’s rale pretty,” said Miss Hazy, 
measuring its length. “ If you ’d ’a’ 
brought me enough fer a skirt, too, 
I ’d never ’a’ got through prayin’ fer 
you.” 

Mrs. Wiggs was indignant. “I de- 
clare, Miss Hazy! You ain’t got a man- 
ner in the world, sometimes. It ’s beau- 
tiful goods, Lovey Mary. I ’m goin’ to 
make it up fer her by a fancy new pat- 
tern Asia bought; it ’s got a sailor 
collar.” 

“This here is for Chris,” continued 
Lovey Mary, slightly depressed by Miss 
229 


Lovey Mary 


Hazy r s lack of appreciation, “and this 
is for Mrs. Schultz. I bought you a 
book, Mrs. Wiggs. I don't know what 
it 's about, but it 's an awful pretty 
cover. I knew you r d like to have it on 
the parlor table.” 

It was the “ Iliad” ! 

Mrs. Wiggs held it at arm's-length 
and, squinting her eyes, read: “Home 
of an Island.” 

“That ain't what the man called it,” 
said Lovey Mary. 

“Oh, it don't matter Tout the name. 
It 's a beautiful book, jes matches my 
new tidy. You could n't 'a' pleased me 
better.” 

“ I did n't have money enough to go 
round,” explained Lovey Mary, apolo- 
getically, “but I bought a dozen lead- 
230 


The Cactus Tilooms 


pencils and thought I'd give them round 
among the children. " 

“ Ever'thing 'll be terrible wrote 
over/' said Miss Hazy. 

The last bundle was done up in tis- 
sue-paper and tied with a silver string. 
Lovey Mary gave it to Mrs. Wiggs when 
Miss Hazy was not looking. 

“ It 's a red necktie/' she whispered, 
“for Billy." 

When the train for the North pulled 
out of the station one Saturday after- 
noon it bore an excited passenger. 
Lovey Mary, in a new dress and hat, 
sat on the edge of a seat, with little 
Robert on one side and Tommy on the 
other. When her nervousness grew un- 
bearable she leaned forward and touched 
Mrs. Redding on the shoulder: 

231 


Lovey Mary 


“Will you please, ma’am, tell me 
when we get there?" 

Mrs* Redding laughed. “ Get there, 
dear? Why, we have just started !" 

“ I mean to the Cabbage Patch. 
They 're all going to be watching for 
me as we go through." 

“Is that it?” said Mr. Redding. 
“Well, I will take the boys, and you 
can go out and stand on the platform 
and watch for your friends." 

Lovey Mary hesitated. “ Please, sir, 
can't I take Tommy, too? If it hadn't 
'a' been for him I never would have 
been here." 

So Mr. Redding took them to the 
rear car, and attaching Lovey Mary 
firmly to the railing, and Tommy firmly 
to Mary, returned to his family. 

232 





















. 
































































































































The Cactus Tttooms 


“There’s MissViny’s!” cried Lovey 
Mary, excitedly, as the train whizzed 
past, “We ’re getting there. Hold on 
to your hat, Tommy, and get your 
pocket-handkerchief ready to wave.” 

The bell began to ring, and the train 
slowed up at the great water-tank. 

“ There they are! All of 'em. Hello, 
Miss Hazy! And there ’s Asia and 
Chris and ever’body!” 

Mrs. Wiggs pushed through the little 
group and held an empty bottle toward 
Lovey Mary. “ I want you to fill it fer 
me/ T she cried breathlessly. “ Fill it full 
of Niag’ry water. I want to see how 
them falls look.” 

The train began to move. Miss Hazy 
threw her apron over her head and 
wept. Mrs. Wiggs and Mrs. Eichorn 
235 


Lovey Mary 


waved their arms and smiled. The Cab- 
bage Patch, with its crowd of friendly 
faces, became a blur to the girl on the 
platform. Suddenly a figure on a tele- 
graph pole attracted her attention; it 
wore a red necktie and it was throwing 
kisses. Lovey Mary waved until the 
train rounded a curve, then she gave 
Tommy an impulsive hug. 

“ It ain't hard to be good when folks 
love you," she said, with a little catch 
in her voice. u I 'll make 'em all proud 
of me yet!" 


236 


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